High-level language defenition. A language for writing computer programs that looks more like human language than computer language and is therefore easier to understand. Low-level language Low-level language (in the context of computer programming), according to Encyclopædia Britannica: Machine and assembly languages are “low-level,” requiring a programmer to manage explicitly all of a computer’s idiosyncratic features of data storage and operation. In contrast, high-level languages shield a programmer from worrying about such considerations and provide a notation that is more easily written and read by programmers.

Key points from Britannica

• Machine language consists of the numeric codes for the operations that a particular computer can execute directly. These codes are strings of 0s and 1s (binary digits, or “bits”), which are frequently converted both from and to hexadecimal (base 16) for human viewing and modification.
• Assembly language is one level above machine language. It uses short mnemonic codes for instructions and allows the programmer to introduce names for blocks of memory that hold data. For example, one might write “add pay, total” instead of a long binary string for an instruction that adds two numbers.
• Assembly language is defined as a type of low-level computer programming language consisting mostly of symbolic equivalents of a particular computer’s machine language. Different manufacturers’ computers have different machine languages and thus require different assemblers and assembly languages. Programming in assembly languages requires extensive knowledge of computer architecture. In the Britannica summary of programming languages:
  Low-level languages address the computer in a way that it can understand directly, but they are very far from human language. High-level languages deal in concepts that humans devise and can understand, but they must be translated by means of a compiler into language the computer understands. Britannica does not have a standalone article titled exactly “low-level language”; the concept is covered primarily under computer programming language and assembly language.