Perl

American

[purl] / pɜrl /

Digital Technology, Trademark.

a high-level scripting language, originally created to help automate text processing, now used more broadly.

Perl British

/ pɜːl /

noun

a computer language that is used for text manipulation, esp on the Internet

"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 Perl

Coined in 1987 by Perl's creator, Larry Wall, U.S. computer programmer (born 1954)

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.

Isobel Perl started her own skincare brand from her parents' house in Watford five years ago.

From BBC • Dec. 28, 2025

In New York City, meanwhile, soil expert Sara Perl Egendorf saw that residents weren't sure how best to protect against soil lead contamination in urban gardens.

From Salon • Mar. 22, 2023

They are attenuated or “flattened out,” as the critic Jed Perl once wrote, “by the pressure of their coming into being.”

From Washington Post • Mar. 30, 2022

Trish Perl, chief of the division of infectious diseases and geographic medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, also co-authored the study.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 15, 2021

Perl was eventually tried and cleared of the espionage charges, but he was convicted of perjury for lying about his association with the Rosenbergs.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

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