Word.ws English Dictionary

higher-order function

higher-order function noun: a function that takes one or more functions as an input, and returns a function as a result.

Noun

higher-order function (plural higher-order functions)

  1. A function that takes one or more functions as an input, and returns a function as a result.
    • A higher-order function is a function that operates on other functions instead of on data values. Some of these take data arguments and manufacture functions to order; others, like the imap() function of Chapter 4, transform one function into another one.2005, Mark Jason Dominus, Higher-Order Perl: Transforming Programs with Programs, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 325
    Synonyms:
    HOF

Synonyms of higher-order function

Forms of higher-order function

pluralhigher-order functions

Questions about higher-order function

What does higher-order function mean?
Higher-order function means a function that takes one or more functions as an input, and returns a function as a result.
What part of speech is higher-order function?
Higher-order function is a noun.
What is the plural of higher-order function?
The plural of higher-order function is higher-order functions.

Words near higher-order function in the dictionary

  1. higher-IQ
  2. higher-level
  3. higher-lying
  4. higher-octane
  5. higher-order
  6. higher-order function
  7. higher-order functions
  8. higher-paid
  9. higher-paying
  10. higher-performance
  11. higher-pitched

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: higher-order function (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “higher-order function.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/higher-order_function. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.