The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
higher programming language \higher programming language\ n.
(Computers)
A computer programming language with an instruction set
allowing one instruction to code for several assembly
language instructions.
Note: The aggregation of several assembly-language
instructions into one instruction allows much greater
efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs
are now written in some higher programming language,
such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++,
PROLOG, or JAVA.
[PJC]