I have difficulties describing it, but here's an example from what I know (and might be totally wrong): function greet ( name, salutation ) { return 'Hello ' + salutation + ' ' + name } greet( 'Foo' , 'Mr' ) // => 'Hello Mr Foo' // higher order function function greetMr ( name ) { return greet(name, 'Mr' ) } greetMr( 'Foo' ) // => 'Hello Mr Foo' Here greetMr is an example of a higher order function, CMIIW