Lambda expression is a fancy way of writing an anonymous function, which is a function without a name that can be passed around like a variable. It's a shortcut for all those times you need a quick function but don't want to bother naming it, because let's face it, naming things is hard and you've got better things to do with your time, like arguing about tabs vs spaces.

How to use it in a sentence

"I was trying to filter this list of cat videos using a lambda expression, but I got distracted by the latest JavaScript framework and forgot what I was doing."

"Some junior dev was struggling with lambda expressions, so I told them to just use a for loop like a real programmer and moved on with my day."

If you actually want to learn more...

• Martin Fowler dives into the nitty-gritty of lambda expressions and other language features for those times when you want to impress your coworkers with your deep knowledge of programming concepts.

• If you're ready to embrace the serverless life, check out Fowler's article on serverless architectures and learn how lambda expressions fit into this brave new world of cloud computing.

• For the Lisp lovers out there (all three of you), Paul Graham's resources page has everything you need to geek out on lambda expressions in your favorite parentheses-filled language.

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.