Perl

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Perl

Where it comes from

A respelling of its original name Pearl, a reference to Matthew 13:46.

A common backronymic explanation is “Practical Extraction and Reporting Language”.

proper noun

A family of high-level programming languages, particularly used for text processing. Perl attracted the attention of Unix system administrators, who needed a language that was easier to use than the C programming language and more powerful than scripting languages such as Borne^([sic]) and C-shell.

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MLA

"Perl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/perl. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

Perl. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/perl

Chicago

"Perl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/perl.

BibTeX

@misc{perl_2026,
  title = {Perl},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/perl},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}