Etymology From poly- + -nomial, from νομός (nomós, “portion, part”), by analogy with binomial.
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Algebra, Mathematics, SciencesStrict sense An expression consisting of a sum of a finite number of terms, each term being the product of a constant coefficient and one or more variables raised to a non-negative integer power, such as a_nxⁿ+a_n-1xⁿ⁻¹+...+a_0x⁰.
Unfortunately, an analogous attack on the octic polynomial becomes exceedingly complicated.1999, William Dunham, Euler: The Master of Us All, Mathematical Association of America, published 1999, page 116:
Our upper bound is the best possible, and it implies the existence of low-rank factorizations of positive semidefinite bivariate matrix polynomials and representations of biforms as sums of few squares.2016, Grigoriy Blekherman, Daniel Plaumann, Rainer Sinn, Cynthia Vinzant, “Low-Rank Sum-of-Squares Representations on Varieties of Minimal Degree”, in arXiv:
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Biology, Natural sciences, Taxonomy A taxonomic designation (such as of a subspecies) consisting of more than two terms.
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A type of term consisting of multiple parts.
Alternatively, there are polynomials denoting stages of the day: tónglóng 曈昽 “ light at daybreak”; or meteorological phenomena, such as wùsōng 雾凇 “(soft) rime”, àidài 叆叇 “ (of clouds) dense”.2023, Martina Jemelková, “On the Nature of Zero-Meaning Sinograms: Typology and Thematic Classification”, in Studia Orientalia Slovaca, volume 22, number 2:
The same corpus is used as in the analysis of the thematic scope of polynomials, except that in this case only 720 binomes will be considered.2025, Martina Jemelková, “Chinese Binomes: A Graphical or Phonological Construct?”, in Acta Linguistica Asiatica, volume 15, number 2, →DOI: