exponent

See also: Exponent

English

Etymology

From Latin expōnēns, present participle of expōnō (“to expose; to exhibit, display, set out; to explain”), from ex- (“out, away”) +‎ pōnō (“to lay, place, put”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɛkˈspəʊ.nənt/, /ˈɛk.spə.nənt/, /ɪkˈspəʊ.nənt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɛkˈspoʊ.nənt/, /ˈɛk.spoʊ.nənt/

  • Audio (Canada):

    (file)

• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ɛkˈspəʊ.nənt/, [ekˈspəʉ.nənt]
• Hyphenation: ex‧po‧nent

Noun

exponent (plural exponents)

1. One who expounds, represents or advocates.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Like attracts like," explained Mrs. Mailey, who was quite as capable an exponent as her husband.

   • 1997, Nancy Sherman, Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 1:

     To think of Kant as an exponent of virtue may seem to some readers itself novel and not easily associated with the Kant familiar to discussions of justice and rights.

2. (mathematics) The number by which a value (called the base) is said to be raised to a power in exponentiation: for example, the $3$ in $2^3=8$.

   Synonym: power

3. (mathematics, obsolete) The degree to which the root of a radicand is found, for example, the $2$ in $\sqrt[2]{r}=b$.

   Synonyms: degree, power

   • 1711, [Jacques Ozanam], “Abridgement of Algebra. Chapter I. Of Monomes.”, in Daniel Hilman, transl., M. Ozanam's Introduction to the Mathematicks or His Algebra: Wherein the Rudiments of that Most Useful Science are Made Plain to a Mean Capacity. Done out of French, London: Printed for R. Sare at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn, →OCLC, problem IV (“To Divide a Quantity by a Quantity”), page 9:

     A Power that hath neither the Signs $+$ or $-$ before it, is look'd upon as Affirmative, and if it be preceded by a Number that contains the Root ſought and its Exponent may be commenſured by the Exponent of the Root; namely for the Square Root by 2, for the Cube by 3, &c. it will contain the Root ſought.

   • 1717, Philip Ronayne, “Of the Indices, or Exponents of Powers”, in A Treatise of Algebra in Two Books: The First Treating of the Arithmetical, and the Second of the Geometrical Part, book I, part V, London: Printed for W[illiam] Innys at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard, →OCLC, page 69:

     And univerſally the Exponent of the m Power, is m times the Exponent of the Root, and the Exponent of the m-Root (or $\frac{1}{m}$ Power) is $\frac{1}{m}$ times the Exponent of the Root.

   • 1845, Dionysius Lardner, “Algebra”, in Edward Smedley, Hugh James Rose, Henry John Rose, editors, Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, on an Original Plan: Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings, volume I (Pure Sciences, volume 1), London: B. Fellowes [et al.], →OCLC, page 534:

     The notation by which the root is expressed, is the mark $\sqrt{}$ called a radical, placed over the letter, with an exponent to the left indicating the order of the root.

4. (linguistics) A phonological manifestation of a morphosyntactic property; in layman's terms, the expression of one or more grammatical properties by sound.
   • 2015, Ruth Kramer, The Morphosyntax of Gender, page 83:

     However, there have been no examples presented of gender systems where the plain n triggers one exponent for gender agreement, and the male and female ns together trigger a different exponent.

5. (computing) The part of a floating-point number that represents its exponent value.

Coordinate terms

• (computing): significand, mantissa

Derived terms

• critical exponent
• exponentiable
• exponential
• exponentiation
• exponent of inseparability
• lifting the exponent
• Lyapunov exponent
• preexponent
• pre-exponent

Related terms

• expone
• expose
• expound

Translations

one who expounds, represents or advocates

• Bulgarian: тълкувател (bg) m (tălkuvatel)
• Czech: hlasatel m
• Finnish: edustaja (fi)
• French: exposant (fr) m
• Galician: expoñente (gl) m or f
• German: Exponent (de) m
• Māori: kaiwhakatakoto
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: eksponent (no) m

  Nynorsk: eksponent m

• Polish: propagator (pl) m, propagatorka f, stronnik (pl) m, stronniczka f, adherent (pl) m, adherentka (pl) f
• Portuguese: expoente (pt) m or f
• Romanian: exponent (ro) m
• Russian: сторо́нник (ru) (storónnik)

(in mathematics) the power to which something is raised

• Arabic: أُسّ (ar) m (ʔuss)
• Armenian: աստիճան (hy) (astičan), ցուցիչ (hy) (cʻucʻičʻ)
• Azerbaijani: qüvvət (az)
• Basque: berretzaile
• Bulgarian: експонента (bg) f (eksponenta)
• Catalan: exponent (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 指數 / 指数 (zh) (zhǐshù)

• Czech: exponent (cs) m, mocnitel (cs) m
• Danish: eksponent c, potenseksponent c
• Esperanto: eksponento
• Finnish: eksponentti (fi)
• French: exposant (fr) m
• Georgian: ხარისხი (xarisxi)
• German: Hochzahl (de) f; Exponent (de) m
• Hebrew: מַעֲרִיך m (ma'aríkh)
• Hindi: घातांक (ghātāṅk)
• Hungarian: kitevő (hu)
• Icelandic: veldisvísir m
• Indonesian: eksponen (id), pangkat (id)
• Japanese: 指数 (ja) (しすう, shisū), 冪指数 (ja) (bekishisū)
• Khmer: និទស្សន្ត (nitŭəhsɑn)
• Korean: 지수 (ko) (jisu)
• Macedonian: степен m (stepen), експоне́нт m (eksponént)
• Māori: taupū
• Marathi: घातांक m (ghātāṅka)
• Mongolian: илтгэгч (mn) (iltgegč)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: eksponent (no) m

  Nynorsk: eksponent m

• Polish: wykładnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: expoente (pt) m
• Romanian: exponent (ro) m
• Russian: сте́пень (ru) (stépenʹ), экспонент (ru) m (eksponent)
• Spanish: exponente (es) m
• Swedish: exponent (sv) c
• Tagalog: paulit

See also

Other terms used in arithmetic operations:

• successor
• addition, summation:

  (augend) + (addend) = (total)

  (summand) + (summand) + (summand)... = (sum)

• subtraction:

  (minuend) − (subtrahend) = (difference)

• multiplication, factorization:

  (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (product)

  (factor) × (factor) × (factor)... = (product)

• division:

  (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient)

  (numerator) / (denominator) = (quotient)

  Or sometimes = (quotient) with (remainder) remaining

• exponentiation:

  (base) ^(exponent) = (power)

• root extraction:

  ^(degree) √ (radicand) = (root)

• logarithmization:

  log_(base) (antilogarithm) = (logarithm)

Advanced hyperoperations: tetration, pentation, hexation

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛksponɛnt]

Noun

exponent m inan

1. (mathematics) exponent (the power to which something is raised)

   Synonym: mocnitel

   V zápisu 1,45E10 je 1,45 mantisa a 10 exponent. ― In the notation 1.45E10, 1.45 is the mantissa and 10 the exponent.

Declension

Declension of exponent (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	exponent	exponenty
genitive	exponentu	exponentů
dative	exponentu	exponentům
accusative	exponent	exponenty
vocative	exponente	exponenty
locative	exponentu	exponentech
instrumental	exponentem	exponenty

Related terms

• See póza

See also

• mantisa

Noun

exponent m anim (female equivalent exponentka)

1. exponent (person who advocates a position)

Declension

Declension of exponent (hard masculine animate)

	singular	plural
nominative	exponent	exponenti
genitive	exponenta	exponentů
dative	exponentovi, exponentu	exponentům
accusative	exponenta	exponenty
vocative	exponente	exponenti
locative	exponentovi, exponentu	exponentech
instrumental	exponentem	exponenty

Further reading

• “exponent”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “exponent”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “exponent”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2026

Dutch

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin expōnēns. The sense “typical representative” is from English exponent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛks.poːˈnɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧po‧nent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

exponent m (plural exponenten, no diminutive)

1. (mathematics) exponent (number by which a base is raised to a power)
2. exponent; someone or something that characterically represents or advocates something, typical representative or advocate

Derived terms

• exponentiaal
• exponentieel

Descendants

• → Indonesian: eksponen

Latin

Verb

expōnent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of expōnō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Exponent, or a learned borrowing from Latin expōnēns.

Noun

exponent m (plural exponenți)

1. exponent (number)
2. exponent (person)

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	exponent	exponentul	exponenți	exponenții
genitive-dative	exponent	exponentului	exponenți	exponenților
vocative	exponentule		exponenților

Further reading

• “exponent”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Slovak

Noun

exponent m inan

1. (mathematics) exponent

Declension

Declension of exponent
(pattern dub)

	singular	plural
nominative	exponent	exponenty
genitive	exponenta, exponentu	exponentov
dative	exponentu	exponentom
accusative	exponent	exponenty
locative	exponente	exponentoch
instrumental	exponentom	exponentmi

Further reading

• “exponent”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

exponent c

1. (mathematics) exponent

Declension

Declension of exponent

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	exponent	exponents
	definite	exponenten	exponentens
plural	indefinite	exponenter	exponenters
	definite	exponenterna	exponenternas