mathematics (Normally written with a Greek letter lambda).

A branch of mathematical logic developed by Alonzo Church in

the late 1930s and early 1940s, dealing with the application

of functions to their arguments. The pure lambda-calculus

contains no constants - neither numbers nor mathematical

functions such as plus - and is untyped. It consists only of

lambda abstractions (functions), variables and applications

of one function to another. All entities must therefore be

represented as functions. For example, the natural number N

can be represented as the function which applies its first

argument to its second N times (Church integer N).