Exponential

//ˌɛk.spəˈnɛn.t͡ʃəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any function that has an exponent as an independent variable.
  2. 2
    a function in which an independent variable appears as an exponent wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Relating to an exponent.
  2. 2
    Expressed in terms of an exponent (power of a base), the base often being 10 or e.

    "In base-10 exponential form, 1,000,000 is written as 10⁶."

  3. 3
    Characterised by a rate of change that is proportional to the value of the varying quantity, or, equivalently, by a doubling or halving over successive fixed intervals of time or other parameter, described as exponential growth or exponential decay.

    "There were two deaths on Monday, four on Tuesday, and eight on Wednesday. The rate of increase seems exponential."

  4. 4
    Characterised by a very rapid rate of change, especially increase, or merely a very large amount or degree. broadly

    "Near-synonyms: extreme, huge"

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or involving exponents wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
exponential functionalgorismicalgorithmicaliquotargumentarithmetical

Example

More examples

"Er, Sir? What's written on the blackboard isn't an exponential function but a trigonometric one ..."

Etymology

From exponent + -ial.

Related phrases

exponential decayexponential distributionexponential equationexponential functionexponential generating functionexponential growthexponential mapexponential objectexponential smoothingexponential timemono-exponentialpre-exponential

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.