Higher-order programming is programming that exploits the ability to use functions as values; it is usually borrowed from models of computation like the lambda calculus which make heavy use of higher-order functions.
For example, in higher-order programming, one can pass functions as arguments to other functions and functions can be the return value of other functions. This style of programming is mostly used in functional programming, but it can also be very useful in 'regular' object-oriented programming. Prominent examples of languages supporting this are the Python programming language,Ruby programming language, all the Lisp programming languages (such as Scheme), and Haskell.
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