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Definition of polynomial in English:

polynomial

adjective

  • Consisting of several terms.

    • ‘Plants and animals were given long, polynomial Latin names.’
    • ‘The idea was that this trivial name would be easy to. remember and would trigger the memory of the plant's 'correct' polynomial name.’

noun

Mathematics

  • 1An expression of more than two algebraic terms, especially the sum of several terms that contain different powers of the same variable(s).

    • ‘Hermite made important contributions to number theory and algebra, orthogonal polynomials, and elliptic functions.’
    • ‘The papers look at algebraic curves, the Riemann Roch theorem and algebraic polynomials.’
    • ‘This latter choice was justified because for several species a long-term decline, which started in the early 1970s, could be better described by a second order polynomial.’
    • ‘The curve is a fitted second-degree polynomial.’
    • ‘But we would not be able to define the derivative using Paman's terms since we consider more complicated functions than the polynomials or power series which Paman considered.’
    1. 1.1Biology A Latin name with more than two parts.
      • ‘Each distinct species was named with a lengthy Latin description known as a polynomial.’
      • ‘Names were usually Latin phrases, polynomials, but could be a single word.’

Origin

Late 17th century: from poly- ‘many’, on the pattern of multinomial.

Pronunciation

polynomial

/ˌpɒlɪˈnəʊmɪəl/