Meaning & use
standard form
A way of writing a very large or very small number as a value between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of ten.
See it in a sentence
In standard form, the distance to the sun is written as 1.5 x 10 to the 8th kilometers.
Students learned to convert numbers into standard form before starting the scientific notation unit.
A note on using this word
In the UK, standard form usually refers to this number notation, while some US math courses use standard form for polynomials instead.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Another way to use it
2. noun
In algebra, the conventional way of writing a linear equation or polynomial with terms in a fixed order.
She rewrote the equation in standard form before graphing the line.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “standard form”, then compare your use with the examples above.