  Superposition rules form a class of functions that describe general solutions
of systems of first-order ordinary differential equations in terms of generic
families of particular solutions and certain constants. In this work we extend
this notion and other related ones to systems of higher-order differential
equations and analyse their properties. Several results concerning the
existence of various types of superposition rules for higher-order systems are
proved and illustrated with examples extracted from the physics and mathematics
literature. In particular, two new superposition rules for second- and
third-order Kummer--Schwarz equations are derived.
