exponent
pronunciation
How to pronounce exponent in British English:
UK [ɪkˈspəʊnənt]
How to pronounce exponent in American English:
US [ɪkˈspoʊnənt]
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- Noun:
- a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
- someone who expounds and interprets or explains
- a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself
Word Origin
- exponent (n.)
- 1706, from Latin exponentem (nominative exponens), present participle of exponere "put forth" (see expound). Earliest use is the mathematical one (said to have been introduced in algebra by Descartes) for the symbol to indicate by what power the base number is to be raised. The sense of "one who expounds" is 1812. As an adjective, from 1580s.
Example
- 1. The arch exponent of this system is the no-frills airline industry .
- 2. But mrs. merkel is not just an exponent for german business .
- 3. Unusually , knivet was both an exponent and a victim of it .
- 4. Unfortunately , the centre-left opposition is no more credible an exponent of reform .
- 5. Arguably the most famous exponent of this worry in the western philosophical tradition is the seventeenth-century french philosopher rene descartes .