programmer vs software engineer

programmer and software engineer both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
programmer	Yes	No	No	No
software engineer	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, programmer and software engineer are synonyms defined as:

programmer and software engineer: a person who designs and writes and tests computer programs

Other synonyms of programmer include coder, computer programmer.

programmer (noun)	software engineer (noun)
a person who designs and writes and tests computer programs	a person who designs and writes and tests computer programs