In mathematics, a monomial is, roughly speaking, a polynomial which has only one term. Two definitions of a monomial may be encountered: \n* (1): A monomial, also called power product, is a product of powers of variables with nonnegative integer exponents, or, in other words, a product of variables, possibly with repetitions. The constant 1 is a monomial, being equal to the empty product and x0 for any variable x. If only a single variable x is considered, this means that a monomial is either 1 or a power xn of x, with n a positive integer. If several variables are considered, say, then each can be given an exponent, so that any monomial is of the form with non-negative integers (taking note that any exponent 0 makes the corresponding factor equal to 1). \n* (2): A monomial is a monomial in the first sense multiplied by a nonzero constant, called the coefficient of the monomial. A monomial in the first sense is also a monomial in the second sense, because the multiplication by 1 is allowed. For example, in this interpretation and are monomials (in the second example, the variables are and the coefficient is a complex number). In the context of Laurent polynomials and Laurent series, the exponents of a monomial may be negative, and in the context of Puiseux series, the exponents may be rational numbers. Since the word "monomial", as well as the word "polynomial", comes from the late Latin word "binomium" (binomial), by changing the prefix "bi" (two in Latin), a monomial should theoretically be called a "mononomial". "Monomial" is a syncope by haplology of "mononomial".

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