In calculus, the second derivative, or the second order derivative, of a function  is the derivative of the derivative of . Roughly speaking, the second derivative measures how the rate of change of a quantity is itself changing; for example, the second derivative of the position of a vehicle with respect to time is the instantaneous acceleration of the vehicle, or the rate at which the velocity of the vehicle is changing with respect to time. In Leibniz notation:

On the graph of a function, the second derivative corresponds to the curvature or concavity of the graph. The graph of a function with positive second derivative curves upwards, while the graph of a function with negative second derivative curves downwards.