exponent

Etymology

From Latin expōnēns, present participle of expōnō (“to expose; to exhibit, display, set out; to explain”), from ex- (“out, away”) + pōnō (“to lay, place, put”).

noun

1. One who expounds, represents or advocates.
   To think of Kant as an exponent of virtue may seem to some readers itself novel and not easily associated with the Kant familiar to discussions of justice and rights. 1997, Nancy Sherman, Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue, page 1
2. (mathematics) The number by which a value (called the base) is said to be raised to a power in exponentiation: for example, the 3 in 2³=8.
3. (mathematics, obsolete) The degree to which the root of a radicand is found, for example, the 2 in ^(2])√=b.
   A Power that hath neither the Signs + or - before it, is look'd upon as Affirmative, and if it be preceded by a Number that contains the Root ſought and its Exponent may be commenſured by the Exponent of the Root; namely for the Square Root by 2, for the Cube by 3, &c. it will contain the Root ſought. 1711, [Jacques Ozanam], “Abridgement of Algebra. Chapter I. Of Monomes.”, in Daniel Hilman, transl., M. Ozanam's Introduction to the Mathematicks or His Algebra: Wherein the Rudiments of that Most Useful Science are Made Plain to a Mean Capacity. Done out of French, London: Printed for R. Sare at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn, →OCLC, problem IV (“To Divide a Quantity by a Quantity”), page 9
   {{quote-book|en|author=Philip Ronayne|chapter=Of the Indices, or Exponents of Powers|title=A Treatise of Algebra in Two Books: The First Treating of the Arithmetical, and the Second of the Geometrical Part|location=London|publisher=Printed for W[illiam] Innys at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard|year=1717|volume_plain=book I, part V|page=69|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=gc82AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA69|oclc=83267734|passage=And univerſally the Exponent of the m Power, is m times the Exponent of the Root, and the Exponent of the m-Root (or 1/m Power) is 1/m times the Exponent of the Root.}}
   {{quote-book|en|author=w:Dionysius Lardner|chapter=Algebra|editors=w:Edward Smedley; w:Hugh James Rose; Henry John Rose|title=Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, on an Original Plan: Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings|location=London|publisher=B. Fellowes [et al.]|year=1845|volume=I (Pure Sciences, volume 1)|page=534|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=EYXa49tpya4C&pg=PA534|oclc=20598255|passage=The notation by which the root is expressed, is the mark √} called a radical, placed over the letter, with an exponent to the left indicating the order of the root.}}
4. (linguistics) A manifestation of a morphosyntactic property.
   However, there have been no examples presented of gender systems where the plain n triggers one exponent for gender agreement, and the male and female ns together trigger a different exponent. 2015, Ruth Kramer, The Morphosyntax of Gender, page 83
5. (computing) The part of a floating-point number that represents its exponent value.