Language in which a computer programmer writes instructions for a computer to execute.
Some languages, such as COBOL , FORTRAN , Pascal , and C , are known as procedural languages because they use a sequence of commands to specify how the machine is to solve a problem. Others, such as LISP , are functional, in that programming is done by invoking procedures (sections of code executed within a program). Languages that support object-oriented programming take the data to be manipulated as their point of departure. Programming languages can also be classified as high-level or low-level. Low-level languages address the computer in a way that it can understand directly, but they are very far from human language. High-level languages deal in concepts that humans devise and can understand, but they must be translated by means of a compiler into language the computer understands.