variants
or Cobol
: a computer programming language designed for business applications
Examples of COBOL in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Government Agencies Too many government agencies run COBOL systems, managing payments on half-century-old infrastructure.
—
Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 24 July 2025
There aren’t that many people alive who are still able to program in COBOL.
—John C. Goodman, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
There are banks and financial institutions around the globe running Java and COBOL software language systems from the same epoch.
—Adrian Bridgwater, Forbes.com, 17 June 2025
The dream of a single universal language never became a reality; COBOL was just one of many languages that emerged, including ALGOL (Algorithmic Language), created for scientific applications.
—Danny Robb, JSTOR Daily, 6 June 2025
The company suggests that AWS Transform can decompose monolithic z/OS COBOL applications into components that can be run in the cloud.
—Adrian Bridgwater, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
Natural language is simply another layer of abstraction, like all programming languages that came before it, such as Visual Basic, Python and COBOL.
—Larry English, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.
—Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica, 28 Mar. 2025
Many legacy systems in financial institutions rely on COBOL, Java or C++, and Rust’s FFI (foreign function interface) support enables gradual migration without requiring a complete overhaul.
—Amandeep Midha, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
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Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 24 July 2025
There aren’t that many people alive who are still able to program in COBOL.
—John C. Goodman, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
There are banks and financial institutions around the globe running Java and COBOL software language systems from the same epoch.
—Adrian Bridgwater, Forbes.com, 17 June 2025
The dream of a single universal language never became a reality; COBOL was just one of many languages that emerged, including ALGOL (Algorithmic Language), created for scientific applications.
—Danny Robb, JSTOR Daily, 6 June 2025
The company suggests that AWS Transform can decompose monolithic z/OS COBOL applications into components that can be run in the cloud.
—Adrian Bridgwater, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
Natural language is simply another layer of abstraction, like all programming languages that came before it, such as Visual Basic, Python and COBOL.
—Larry English, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.
—Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica, 28 Mar. 2025
Many legacy systems in financial institutions rely on COBOL, Java or C++, and Rust’s FFI (foreign function interface) support enables gradual migration without requiring a complete overhaul.
—Amandeep Midha, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“COBOL.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/COBOL. Accessed 31 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
COBOL
noun
CO·BOL
variants
or Cobol
: a computer programming language used especially in business
Etymology
common business oriented language
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