Key Terms - Prealgebra

Key Terms

binomial: A binomial is a polynomial with exactly two terms.

degree of a constant: The degree of a constant is $0$ .

degree of a polynomial: The degree of a polynomial is the highest degree of all its terms.

degree of a term: The degree of a term of a polynomial is the exponent of its variable.

greatest common factor: The greatest common factor (GCF) of two or more expressions is the largest expression that is a factor of all the expressions.

monomial: A term of the form $a x^{m}$ , where $a$ is a constant and $m$ is a whole number, is called a monomial.

negative exponent: If $n$ is a positive integer and $a \neq 0$ , then $a^{- n} = \frac{1}{a^{n}}$ .

polynomial: A polynomial is a monomial, or two or more monomials, combined by addition or subtraction.

scientific notation: A number expressed in scientific notation when it is of the form $a \times 10^{n},$ where $a \geq 1$ and $a < 10,$ and $n$ is an integer.

trinomial: A trinomial is a polynomial with exactly three terms.

zero exponent: If $a$ is a non-zero number, then $a^{0} = 1$ . Any nonzero number raised to the zero power is 1.