If a machine is programmable, you can give it a program — a list of steps — and it will follow that list, instead of doing only one fixed job. Lights, ovens, thermostats, factory tools, and little music boxes can all be programmable. The word is almost always about devices, not about people. Though actually, people say a programmable calculator or a programmable keyboard when they mean you can change what the buttons do. As a noun, a programmable is sometimes just shorthand for such a machine, but the adjective is the one you will see most. It is neutral, technical talk, not fancy.