See COBOL in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "common business-oriented language"
},
"expansion": "Acronym of common business-oriented language",
"name": "acronym"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Q92953",
"nobycat": "1",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer",
"name": "coin"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Acronym of common business-oriented language, perhaps coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Cobol",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "COBOL",
"name": "en-proper noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "name",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with optional capitalization",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Marathi translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Computer languages",
"orig": "en:Computer languages",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "COBOLer"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
15,
20
],
[
60,
65
],
[
100,
105
],
[
141,
146
]
],
"ref": "1973, Russell M. Armstrong, Modular Programming in COBOL, Wiley-Interscience:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
8,
13
]
],
"ref": "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:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A programming language developed in the late 1950s especially for business applications."
],
"id": "en-COBOL-en-name-CnI6ofG3",
"links": [
[
"programming language",
"programming language"
],
[
"business",
"business"
],
[
"applications",
"applications"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "programming language",
"word": "COBOL"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "programming language",
"word": "Kobolo"
},
{
"code": "mr",
"lang": "Marathi",
"lang_code": "mr",
"roman": "kobol",
"sense": "programming language",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "कोबोल"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈkoʊbɒl/"
},
{
"ipa": "/-bɔːl/"
}
],
"word": "COBOL"
}
{
"derived": [
{
"word": "COBOLer"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "common business-oriented language"
},
"expansion": "Acronym of common business-oriented language",
"name": "acronym"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Q92953",
"nobycat": "1",
"nocap": "1"
},
"expansion": "coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer",
"name": "coin"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Acronym of common business-oriented language, perhaps coined by American computer scientist and aerospace engineer Bob Bemer.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Cobol",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "COBOL",
"name": "en-proper noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "name",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English acronyms",
"English coinages",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English proper nouns",
"English terms with optional capitalization",
"English terms with quotations",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Esperanto translations",
"Terms with Marathi translations",
"en:Computer languages"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
15,
20
],
[
60,
65
],
[
100,
105
],
[
141,
146
]
],
"ref": "1973, Russell M. Armstrong, Modular Programming in COBOL, Wiley-Interscience:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
8,
13
]
],
"ref": "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:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A programming language developed in the late 1950s especially for business applications."
],
"links": [
[
"programming language",
"programming language"
],
[
"business",
"business"
],
[
"applications",
"applications"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈkoʊbɒl/"
},
{
"ipa": "/-bɔːl/"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "programming language",
"word": "COBOL"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"lang_code": "eo",
"sense": "programming language",
"word": "Kobolo"
},
{
"code": "mr",
"lang": "Marathi",
"lang_code": "mr",
"roman": "kobol",
"sense": "programming language",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "कोबोल"
}
],
"word": "COBOL"
}
Download raw JSONL data for COBOL meaning in English (2.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (e2469cc and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.