COBOL

American  

[koh-bawl] / ˈkoʊ bɔl /

noun

Computers.

1. a programming language particularly suited for writing programs to process large files of data, using a vocabulary of common English words, phrases, and sentences.

---

COBOL British  

/ ˈkəʊˌbɒl /

noun

1. a high-level computer programming language designed for general commercial use

---

COBOL Scientific  

/ kō′bôl′ /

1. A programming language developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s and used especially for business applications. It is closer to English than many other high-level languages, making it easier to learn.

---

Etymology

Origin of COBOL

1955–60; co(mmon) b(usiness) - o(riented) l(anguage)

Example Sentences

IBM suffered its worst day in 25 years, compounded by Anthropic’s announcement that its Claude AI could modernize COBOL, the programming language holding IBM’s mainframe empire together.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026

The selloff began after Anthropic announced that its Claude Code tool could automate the modernization of COBOL, a decades-old programming language that underpins most ATM transactions and in-person credit card swipes.

From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026

The agency still uses technology dating back more than a half-century, including devices running a programming language, COBOL, that few coders still know.

From New York Times • Aug. 26, 2022

On Sunday, Lizzie interviewed journalist Clive Thompson about COBOL, the ancient coding language that still powers so many of your daily interactions with tech.

From Slate • Feb. 12, 2022

COBOL, Apple's Hypertalk language, and a lot of the so-called `4GL' database languages share this property.

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.