COBOL (an acronym for common business-oriented language) is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use.

It is imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. In 1997, Gartner Group estimated that there were a total of 200 billion lines of COBOL in existence which ran 80% of all business programs.

It was designed in 1959 by the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL) and was largely based on previous programming language design work by Grace Hopper, commonly referred to as "the (grand)mother of COBOL".

It was created as part of a US Department of Defense effort to create a portable programming language for data processing. Intended as a temporary stopgap, the Department of Defense promptly forced computer manufacturers to provide it, resulting in its widespread adoption.[6] It was standardized in 1968 and has since been revised four times. Expansions include support for structured and object-oriented programming. The current standard is ISO/IEC 1989:2014.

COBOL has an English-like syntax which was designed to be self-documenting and highly readable. However, it is verbose and uses over 300 reserved words. In contrast with modern, succinct notation like y = x;, COBOL uses MOVE x TO y. COBOL code is split into four divisions (identification, environment, data and procedure) containing a rigid hierarchy sections, paragraphs and sentences. In eschew of a large standard library, the standard specifies 43 statements, 87 functions and just one class.

COBOL has been criticized throughout its life for its verbosity, design process and poor support for structured programming, which resulted in monolithic and incomprehensible programs. It has also been alienated from computer scientists since its creation.