Closures are (very roughly) functions-with-data, in much the same way that objects are data-with-functions. Currying is the technique of building one function from another, where the new function is a "partially evaluated" version of the old. In Perl5, currying can be implemented with closures; note that there's a lot more that you can do with Perl5-closures than just curry a function. In this case, I think you're comparing apples (Perl5-currying) and fruit (Perl5-closures).