If it just contains one letter variable, then you just look
for the largest exponent, like this one:



has the degree 8 because it just has one letter and the 
biggest exponent is on the term .



has degree 6 because this one has two letters x and y, and when that
is the case you have to add the exponents together. In the term 
 the exponent of x is 1 understood like this 
and the sum of the exponents in that term is 1+5 or 6.

 has degree 1 because the term  is the same as


A polynomial can just have one term:

 has degree 16

Even a single number can be considered to be a polynomial.

The number  can be considered to be a polynomial.  It has 
degree 0 because  can be written as  since  
is just 1.

Edwin