Perl is a powerful, high-level programming language known for its text processing capabilities. It is widely used in web development, system administration, and network programming. Perl's flexibility and extensive library of modules (CPAN) allow developers to perform tasks ranging from simple scripts to complex applications. It excels at handling regular expressions and parsing large datasets, making it popular in bioinformatics and financial industries. Although less commonly used today, Perl remains valuable for legacy systems and niche applications.