Word.ws English Dictionary

COBOL

/ˈkoʊbɒl/

COBOL proper noun: a programming language developed in the late 1950s, especially for business applications.

Proper noun (1)

COBOL

  1. A programming language developed in the late 1950s, especially for business applications.
    • The problem in COBOL is that, while there exists a standard COBOL, ANS (American National Standard) COBOL, no computer manufacturer offers a COBOL compiler that is both full and pure ANS.1973, Russell M. Armstrong, Modular Programming in COBOL, Wiley-Interscience
    • Because COBOL does not have a date type, some implementations rely instead on a system whereby all dates are coded to a reference point. The most commonly used is May 20, 1875, as this was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre.2025 February 17, David Gilbert, “No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security Benefits”, in WIRED, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2025

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Cobol

Cobol

  1. Alternative letter-case form of COBOL.

COBOL meaning in Marathi

COBOL in Marathi

programming language
कोबोल kobol

Forms of COBOL

alternative formCobol

Origin of COBOL

Acronym of common business-oriented language, perhaps coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer.

Words formed from COBOL

Questions about COBOL

What does COBOL mean?
COBOL means a programming language developed in the late 1950s, especially for business applications.
What is COBOL in Marathi?
COBOL in Marathi is कोबोल (kobol). See COBOL meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is COBOL?
COBOL is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce COBOL?
COBOL is pronounced /ˈkoʊbɒl/.

Words near COBOL in the dictionary

  1. cobnuts
  2. Cobo
  3. coboard
  4. coboarded
  5. coboarding
  6. COBOL
  7. cobold
  8. cobolds
  9. COBOLer
  10. COBOLers
  11. cobombardment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: COBOL (page history and authors); Cobol (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Izdeb04hw-COBOL.wav.

Cite this entry: “COBOL.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cobol. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.