exponent

Noun

exponent (plural exponents)

1. One who expounds, represents or advocates.
   • Like attracts like," explained Mrs. Mailey, who was quite as capable an exponent as her husband.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
   • 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.1997, Nancy Sherman, Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 1
2. The number by which a value (called the base) is said to be raised to a power in exponentiation: for example, the 3 in 2³=8.

   Synonyms:

   power

3. (obsolete) The degree to which the root of a radicand is found, for example, the 2 in ^(2])√=b.
   • A Power that hath neither the Signs #43; 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...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...
   • And univerſally the Exponent of the m Power, is m times the Exponent of the Root, and the Exponent of the m-Root (or #92;frac#123;1#125;#123;m#125; Power) is #92;frac#123;1#125;#123;m#125; times the Exponent of the Root.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...

   Synonyms:

   degree, power

4. A phonological manifestation of a morphosyntactic property; in layman's terms, the expression of one or more grammatical properties by sound.
   • 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.2015, Ruth Kramer, The Morphosyntax of Gender, page 83
5. The part of a floating-point number that represents its exponent value.