exponent
Americannoun
-
exponents
plural
-
a person or thing that expounds, explains, or interprets.
an exponent of modern theory in the arts.
-
a person or thing that is a representative, advocate, type, or symbol of something.
Lincoln is an exponent of American democracy.
- Synonyms:
- personification, embodiment
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Mathematics. a symbol or number placed above and after another symbol or number to denote the power to which the latter is to be raised.
The exponents of the quantities xn, 2m, y4, and 35 are, respectively, n, m, 4, and 5.
noun
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(usually foll by of) a person or thing that acts as an advocate (of an idea, cause, etc)
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a person or thing that explains or interprets
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a performer or interpretive artist, esp a musician
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Also called: power, index. maths a number or variable placed as a superscript to the right of another number or quantity indicating the number of times the number or quantity is to be multiplied by itself
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of exponent
1575–85; < Latin expōnent- (stem of expōnēns ), present participle of expōnere to expound; see -ent
Explanation
An exponent is a person who is a big promoter of something. Are you an exponent of the four-day school and work week? You may already know the mathematical meaning of exponent: a numeric notation showing how many times a number is multiplied by itself. How did exponent come to mean a strong advocate or promoter of something? Well, its Latin ancestor was a verb meaning "to put forth" and it's easy to see how this could be generalized to refer to people. After all, aren't you an exponent of freedom of expression?
Vocabulary lists containing exponent
The ACT Math Test: Number and Quantity
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Expressions and Equations
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Algebra
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A few years later and a few hundred miles down the Eastern Seaboard, Bruce Springsteen, perhaps the greatest living exponent of the American song of the open road, issued the tragic and affecting “Atlantic City.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Its message was spread across the world in the 1970s by Marley — the faith’s most famous exponent.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
They also found that the gamma-ray flare distribution indicates that blazar neutrino emission may be dominated by flares for the weighting exponent >1.5.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2023
Davies just happens to be a leading Glass exponent who has premiered the majority of the composer’s symphonies, concertos and operas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2023
He soon became the leading exponent of the Liszt school of technic and interpretation.
From Franz Liszt by James Huneker
“You’re taking another two exponents of risk as you’re moving towards fusion away from fission.”
From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026
Podhoretz and his friend Irving Kristol—also a Brooklyn Jew and a former leftist—were the two foremost exponents of neoconservatism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
And there are plenty more exponents who continue to shun convention and go with longer implements.
From BBC ● May 27, 2025
On a recent Friday, second-year instructor Nathalie Robles was teaching Compton High 11th-graders about exponents in her integrated math class — and had multiple strategies to make sure students were keeping up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2025
He did a nice job today reviewing how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide exponents.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
