Simply put: A callback is a function that is to be executed after another function has finished executing — hence the name ‘call back’.

More complexly put: In JavaScript, functions are objects. Because of this, functions can take functions as arguments, and can be returned by other functions. Functions that do this are called higher-order functions. Any function that is passed as an argument is called a callback function.

^ That’s a lot of words. Lets look at some examples to break this down a little more.