Degree of a Polynomial

In mathematics, the degree of a polynomial is the highest of the degrees of its monomials, or individual terms, with non-zero coefficients, where the degree of a term is the sum of the exponents of its variables and is always a non-negative integer; for a polynomial in a single variable, the degree is simply the highest exponent that appears. For example, the polynomial 7 x squared y cubed plus 4x minus 9 has three terms of degrees 5, 1, and 0, so the polynomial's overall degree is 5. Finding the degree of a polynomial that is not already in standard form requires expanding and combining like terms first, although when a polynomial is expressed as a product of factors its degree equals the sum of the factors' degrees, which avoids the need for full expansion; the older term order was once used as a synonym for degree but now refers to other mathematical concepts. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/