Also known as a "3GL," it refers to a high-level programming language such as FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal and C. It is a step above assembly language and a step below a fourth-generation ...

Second-generation languages are machine-dependent assembly languages, and third-generation languages (3GLs) are high-level programming languages, such as FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal, C/C++ and Java.