Language Glossary

Browse 64 language terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

64 Language Terms

Abstract Syntax Tree
A tree representation of source code where each node represents a syntactic construct (expressions, statements, declarations). Unlike a parse tree, an AST...
Ada
Ada is a statically typed, high-level programming language originally designed in the early 1980s for the United States Department of Defense to address the...
AI Language
Language used in AI contexts, either referring to natural language processed by AI systems or to specialized representations, prompts, and conventions used...
APL
A Programming Language, a mathematically-oriented language that uses a special set of symbolic operators to manipulate arrays with extraordinary conciseness....
Bash
The Bourne Again Shell, the default command-line interpreter on most Linux distributions and macOS. Bash scripts are the glue of Unix system administration,...
C
The foundational systems programming language that has shaped virtually all modern computing. C was created to rewrite Unix, and its direct hardware access,...
C#
Microsoft's modern, object-oriented language for the .NET platform, combining the power of C++ with the productivity of Java. C# has evolved aggressively with...
C++
An extension of C that adds object-oriented programming, templates, and a vast standard library while maintaining low-level hardware control. C++ dominates...
Clojure
A modern Lisp dialect that runs on the JVM, emphasizing immutable data structures, functional programming, and a pragmatic approach to concurrency. Clojure's...
COBOL
Common Business-Oriented Language, one of the oldest programming languages still in active use. COBOL runs an estimated 95% of ATM transactions and 80% of...
Code Language
An informal phrase for a programming language or the broader way code expresses logic and intent. In culture discussions it sometimes also reflects how people...
Codspeak
A playful term for the dense slang, abbreviations, and insider language used by programmers and tech workers. Codspeak can create fast mutual understanding...
Compiler
A compiler is a program that translates source code in a high-level programming language into lower-level code, such as machine code or bytecode, so it can be...
Dart
A client-optimized programming language developed by Google, primarily known as the language behind the Flutter UI framework. Dart supports both ahead-of-time...
Dialect
A variant of a programming language or query language that differs from the standard in syntax or features. SQL dialects (MySQL, PostgreSQL, T-SQL) are the...
Elixir
A functional, concurrent programming language built on the Erlang VM (BEAM) designed for building scalable, fault-tolerant applications. Elixir combines...
Erlang
A functional programming language designed for building massively concurrent, fault-tolerant telecom systems. Erlang's 'let it crash' philosophy and...
F#
A functional-first language on the .NET platform that brings ML-family language features to the Microsoft ecosystem. F# offers type providers for typed access...
Factor
A concatenative, stack-based programming language with a rich standard library and interactive development environment. Inspired by Forth, it emphasizes...
Fortran
The first widely used high-level programming language, originally developed for scientific and engineering computation. Fortran (Formula Translation) remains...
Go
Go, also known as Golang, is a statically typed, compiled programming language designed at Google by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson. Released in...
Go
Go, also known as Golang, is a statically typed, compiled programming language designed at Google by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson. Released in...
Groovy
A dynamic language for the JVM designed as a companion to Java, offering concise syntax, closures, and built-in support for working with XML, JSON, and...
Haskell
A purely functional programming language with strong static typing, lazy evaluation, and a sophisticated type system including type classes and monads. Haskell...
Intermediate Representation
A data structure used internally by a compiler between the frontend (parsing) and backend (code generation) phases. Enables optimization passes that are...
Java
A statically typed, object-oriented language whose 'write once, run anywhere' promise via the JVM made it the dominant enterprise language for two decades....
JavaScript
JavaScript is a dynamic, interpreted programming language created in 10 days by Brendan Eich at Netscape in 1995. Originally designed to add interactivity to...
Julia
A high-level, high-performance language designed to solve the 'two-language problem' in scientific computing — where researchers prototype in Python then...
Kotlin
A modern, statically typed programming language that runs on the JVM and is fully interoperable with Java. Google designated Kotlin as the preferred language...
Language Understanding
The ability of an AI system to interpret meaning, intent, structure, and context in natural language. In practice, language understanding is judged by how well...
Lexer
The first stage of a compiler or interpreter that converts raw source code text into a stream of tokens (keywords, identifiers, operators, literals). Also...
Lisp
The second-oldest high-level programming language, pioneering many foundational concepts including tree data structures, automatic garbage collection, dynamic...
Lua
A lightweight, embeddable scripting language designed for extending applications. Lua's tiny footprint and fast VM make it the dominant embedded scripting...
Markup
Markup refers to a system of annotations or tags added to text to define its structure, formatting, and semantics, separate from the content itself. The...
MATLAB
A proprietary numerical computing environment and programming language widely used in engineering, signal processing, and control systems. MATLAB's...
Natural Instruction
An instruction phrased in ordinary natural language rather than formal code or rigid command syntax. Natural instructions make systems easier to use, though...
Objective-C
A superset of C that adds Smalltalk-style message passing, used as the primary language for Apple's macOS and iOS development before Swift. Objective-C's...
OCaml
A multi-paradigm language from the ML family featuring a powerful type inference system, pattern matching, and a native code compiler that produces fast...
Parser
A component that takes a stream of tokens from the lexer and builds a structured representation (AST or parse tree) according to a formal grammar. Types...
Pascal
A structured programming language designed primarily for teaching good programming practices. Pascal influenced many subsequent languages and was popularized...
Perl
A high-level, general-purpose scripting language originally designed for text manipulation and report generation. Known as the 'Swiss Army chainsaw' of...
PHP
A server-side scripting language that powers an estimated 77% of websites with known server-side languages, including WordPress, Facebook (as Hack), and...
PowerShell
Microsoft's task automation framework and command-line shell, built on .NET and designed around the concept of passing objects (not text) between commands....
Prolog
A logic programming language where programs are expressed as relations and rules rather than step-by-step instructions. Prolog's built-in backtracking search...
Python
Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language emphasizing code readability, simplicity, and developer productivity. Created by Guido van Rossum...
R
A programming language and environment specifically designed for statistical computing and data visualization. R's comprehensive package ecosystem (CRAN) and...
ReScript
A strongly-typed functional programming language that compiles to readable JavaScript, originally forked from ReasonML, emphasizing fast compilation and a...
Ruby
A dynamic, object-oriented scripting language designed for developer happiness and productivity. Ruby's elegant syntax and the Ruby on Rails web framework...
Rust
Rust is a systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency, developed by Mozilla Research and first released in 2015. Its defining...
Scala
A JVM language that fuses object-oriented and functional programming with a powerful type system. Scala gained prominence as the language behind Apache Spark...
Scheme
A minimalist dialect of Lisp designed for teaching and research, emphasizing lexical scoping, first-class continuations, and tail-call optimization. Scheme is...
Sentence Completion
A generation task where the model is asked to complete a partial sentence in a coherent and contextually appropriate way. Sentence completion is a simple but...
Smalltalk
The language that defined object-oriented programming as we know it. Developed at Xerox PARC alongside the modern GUI, Smalltalk treats everything as an object...
Solidity
The primary programming language for writing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain and EVM-compatible chains. Solidity's JavaScript-like syntax belies the...
SQL
SQL, or Structured Query Language, is the standard language for managing and querying relational databases. Developed at IBM in the 1970s based on Edgar Codd's...
Static Typing
A type system where variable types are determined and checked at compile time rather than runtime, catching type errors before the program executes.
Strong Typing
A type system characteristic where implicit type conversions are restricted, requiring explicit casts and preventing operations between incompatible types,...
Struct
Struct is a composite data type in programming that groups together related variables under a single name, where each variable (called a field or member) can...
Sub-Word
A piece of a word used as a tokenization unit so models can handle rare words, variations, and new forms more efficiently than with whole-word vocabularies...
Swift
Apple's modern programming language for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS development, designed as a successor to Objective-C. Swift combines high performance with...
TypeScript
TypeScript is a strongly typed programming language created by Microsoft that builds on JavaScript by adding optional static type annotations. It compiles (or...
VHDL
VHSIC Hardware Description Language, used to describe and simulate digital electronic systems at various levels of abstraction. VHDL is one of two dominant...
Word Piece
A tokenization unit smaller than a whole word but larger than a character, commonly used to represent text efficiently in language models. Word pieces help...
Zig
A systems programming language positioned as a pragmatic alternative to C, with no hidden control flow, no hidden allocators, and no undefined behavior. Zig...

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