Calling vs invoking a function

Question

Up to this point, I thought \"calling\" and \"invoking\" a function meant the same thing. However, in a YouTube tutorial it said to invoke a function by calling it.

Answer 1

The difference is semantic and subtle. When you call a function, you are directly telling it to run. When you invoke a function, you are letting something run it.

There is one way to call a function:

myFunction()

Here, you are invoking the function (letting it run) by calling it directly.

There are many ways to invoke a function (given throughout different comments and answers). Here's one example:

function invoker(functionName) {
  functionName() 
}

invoker(myFunction)

Here, by calling invoker, you are invoking myFunction, which is being called indirectly.