FORTRAN

American

[fawr-tran] / ˈfɔr træn /

noun

Computers.

a high-level programming language used mainly for solving problems in science and engineering.

FORTRAN British

/ ˈfɔːtræn /

noun

a high-level computer programming language for mathematical and scientific purposes, designed to facilitate and speed up the solving of complex problems

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of FORTRAN

1955–60; for(mula) tran(slation)

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She taught IBM employees the basics of its new Fortran language, later becoming one of three designers for the company’s Stretch-Harvest project.

From The Verge • Aug. 9, 2020

Among climate scientists, the lingua franca is Fortran: speedy, but — with roots dating to the 1950s — not terribly exciting.

From Nature • Jul. 29, 2019

With languages such as C and Fortran, code must be compiled into machine-readable instructions before it can be executed.

From Nature • Jul. 29, 2019

Fran Allen was so expert in optimizing Fortran, a popular language for performing scientific calculations, that she became the first female IBM fellow.

From New York Times • Feb. 13, 2019

When I took my first CS course as a freshman at Princeton in 1974, I had to type my Fortran programs onto punch cards and feed the cards into a hopper.

From Forbes • Dec. 8, 2014

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023