DBMS: Table-Valued Functions (Definitions)

"a function that returns a result set because it returns a SELECT statement from a table." (Joseph L Jorden & Dandy Weyn, "MCTS Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Implementation and Maintenance Study Guide - Exam 70-431", 2006)

"User-defined function in which a table is returned as a result, as opposed to a single data value." (Sara Morganand & Tobias Thernstrom , MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit : Designing and Optimizing Data Access by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Exam 70-442, 2007)

"A user-defined function that returns a table." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)