A **tail call** is a specific kind of function call that occurs as the final action of a procedure or function before it returns a result. In programming, especially in languages that support functional programming paradigms, tail calls have significant implications for performance and memory usage. When a function makes a tail call, it can often do so without needing to increase the call stack.
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A call whose result is returned directly, with no further computation waiting in its caller. Its caller's activation record can therefore be replaced rather than retained. A recursive tail call gives tail recursion; an explicit loop updating the current arguments performs the same control transfer without requiring compiler optimization.