Polynomial

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Polynomial \Pol`y*no"mi*al\, n. [Poly- + -nomial, as in
     monomial, binomial: cf. F. polyn[^o]me.] (Alg.)
     An expression composed of two or more terms, connected by the
     signs plus or minus; as, a^{2} - 2ab + b^{2}.
     [1913 Webster]



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Polynomial \Pol`y*no"mi*al\, a.
     1. Containing many names or terms; multinominal; as, the
        polynomial theorem.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Consisting of two or more words; having names consisting
        of two or more words; as, a polynomial name; polynomial
        nomenclature.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  polynomial
       adj : having the character of a polynomial; "a polynomial
             expression" [syn: {multinomial}]
       n : a mathematical expression that is the sum of a number of
           terms [syn: {multinomial}]

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  polynomial
       
          1.  An arithmetic expression composed by summing
          multiples of powers of some variable.
       
          	P(x) = sum a_i x^i for i = 0 .. N
       
          The multipliers, a_i, are known as "{coefficient}s" and N, the
          highest power of x with a non-zero coefficient, is known as
          the "degree" of the polynomial.  If N=0 then P(x) is constant,
          if N=1, P(x) is linear in x.  N=2 gives a "{quadratic}" and
          N=3, a "cubic".
       
          2.  {polynomial-time}.