EXPONENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does exponent mean? 

• EXPONENT (noun)
  The noun EXPONENT has 3 senses:

1. a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea

2. someone who expounds and interprets or explains

3. a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself

  Familiarity information: EXPONENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPONENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

advocate; advocator; exponent; proponent

Hypernyms ("exponent" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "exponent"):

drumbeater; partisan; zealot (a fervent and even militant proponent of something)

unilateralist (an advocate of unilateralism)

partitionist (an advocate of partitioning a country)

Platonist (an advocate of Platonism)

pro-lifer (an advocate of full legal protection for embryos and fetuses; someone opposed to legalized induced abortion)

presenter; sponsor (an advocate who presents a person (as for an award or a degree or an introduction etc.))

protectionist (an advocate of protectionism)

republican (an advocate of a republic (usually in opposition to a monarchy))

ritualist (an advocate of strict observance of ritualistic forms)

ruralist (an advocate of rural living)

secessionist (an advocate of secessionism)

secularist (an advocate of secularism; someone who believes that religion should be excluded from government and education)

separationist; separatist (an advocate of secession or separation from a larger group (such as an established church or a national union))

interpreter; representative; spokesperson; voice (an advocate who represents someone else's policy or purpose)

suffragist (an advocate of the extension of voting rights (especially to women))

admirer; booster; champion; friend; protagonist; supporter (a person who backs a politician or a team etc.)

supremacist (a person who advocates the supremacy of some particular group or racial group over all others)

teleologist (advocate of teleology)

Thatcherite (an advocate of Thatcherism)

internationalist (an advocate of internationalism)

apologist; justifier; vindicator (a person who argues to defend or justify some policy or institution)

constitutionalist (an advocate of constitutional government)

Darwinian (an advocate of Darwinism)

democrat (an advocate of democratic principles)

populist (someone who advocates the rights of the common people over those of the elite)

federalist (an advocate of federalism)

Gnostic (an advocate of Gnosticism)

humanist; humanitarian (an advocate of the principles of humanism; someone concerned with the interests and welfare of humans)

ideologist; ideologue (an advocate of some ideology)

nullifier (an advocate of nullification; someone who believes that a state can resist federal laws)

irredentist; irridentist (an advocate of irredentism)

isolationist (an advocate of isolationism in international affairs)

Jansenist (an advocate of Jansenism)

libertarian (an advocate of libertarianism)

Maoist (an advocate of Maoism)

Marxist (an advocate of Marxism)

nationalist (an advocate of national independence of or a strong national government)

neoclassicist (an advocate of neoclassicism)

neutralist (an advocate of neutrality in international affairs)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who expounds and interprets or explains

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("exponent" is a kind of...):

intellect; intellectual (a person who uses the mind creatively)

Derivation:

expound (add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

exponent; index; power

Hypernyms ("exponent" is a kind of...):

mathematical notation (a notation used by mathematicians)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "exponent"):

log; logarithm (the exponent required to produce a given number)

degree (the highest power of a term or variable)

Derivation:

exponential (of or involving exponents)

 Context examples 

I was their chief exponent, and opened Mr. Barkis's mind to an amazing extent.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A convention for representing the molecular structure of fatty acids where each double bond is represented by the symbol delta with an exponent of x that indicates the xth carbon-carbon bond as counted from the carboxylic end.

(delta-x Nomenclature, NCI Thesaurus)