Much of the Node.js core API is built around an idiomatic *asynchronous event-driven architecture* in which certain kinds of objects (**emitters**) emit *named events* that cause `Function` objects (**listeners**) to be called.
All objects that emit events are instances of the `EventEmitter` class. These objects expose an `eventEmitter.on()` function that allows one or more functions to be attached to named events emitted by the object. Typically, event names are camel-cased strings but any valid JavaScript property key can be used.
When the EventEmitter object emits an event, all of the functions attached to that specific event are called *synchronously*. Any values returned by the called listeners are *ignored and discarded*.