exponent

n 1: a person who pleads for a cause or idea [syn: {advocate}, {proponent}]

2: a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a

quantity is multiplied by itself [syn: {power}, {index}]

exponent

(Or "characteristic") The part of a

{floating-point} number specifying the power of ten by which

the {mantissa} should be multiplied. In the common notation,

e.g. 3.1E8, the exponent is 8.

(1995-02-27)