Lua (/ˈluːə/ LOO-ə, from Portuguese: lua [ˈlu.(w)ɐ] meaning moon; explicitly not "LUA" for it is not an acronym) is a lightweight multi-paradigm programming language designed as a scripting language with extensible semantics as a primary goal. Lua is cross-platform since it is written in ANSI C, and has a relatively simple C API.