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The term computer language includes a wide variety of languages used to communicate with computers. It is broader than the more commonly-used term programming language. Programming languages are a subset of computer languages. For example, HTML is a markup language and a computer language, but it is not traditionally considered a programming language. Machine code is a computer language. It can technically be used for programming, and has been (e.g. the original bootstrapper for Altair BASIC), though most would not consider it a programming language.

Computer languages can be divided into two groups: high-level languages and low-level languages. High-level languages are designed to be easier to use, more abstract, and more portable than low-level languages. Syntactically correct programs in some languages are then compiled to low-level language and executed by the computer. Most modern software is written in a high-level language, compiled into object code, and then translated into machine instructions.

Computer languages could also be grouped based on other criteria. Another distinction could be made between human-readable and non-human-readable languages. Human-readable languages are designed to be used directly by humans to communicate with the computer. Non-human-readable languages, though they can often be partially understandable, are designed to be more compact and easily processed, sacrificing readability to meet these ends.

Computer languages include:

• Programming languages (e.g., C++, assembly language)
• Scripting languages
• Specification languages
• Machine Code (the non human-readable form other languages are translated into, sometimes on the fly)
• Bytecode (essentially "virtual" machine code - executed by a virtual machine)
• Query language (e.g., SQL, XQuery)
• Markup languages (e.g., HTML - typically used for producing documents)
• Transformation languages (e.g., XSLT)
• Template processing languages
• Fourth-generation programming language ("4GL")
• Visual programming languages
• Hardware description languages
• Configuration file formats (e.g., INI file)
• Category:Data serialization formats

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For history and taxonomy see The Encyclopedia of Programming Languages.

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