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.

Dorothy, seeking a book that will teach her about FORTRAN, gets thrown out of a public library for daring to browse in the whites-only section.

From Seattle Times

He stimulated the ambitions of many young scientists and conducted his own analyses of the data using FORTRAN, an early programming language, and an ancient graphics package hosted on a Chicago computer.

From Nature

FORTRAN, the first successful, higher-level programming language was designed to let engineers and scientists write programs in a vernacular that closely resembled math formulas familiar to them.

From New York Times

By far the most important of the new programming languages was FORTRAN; until recently, it has been estimated, more than 90 percent of all scientific and engineering programs were written in it.

From Scientific American

The chess program had been started using FORTRAN, one of the early computer languages.

From Project Gutenberg

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