An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A function expressed in terms of → polynomials and/or roots of polynomials. In other words, any function y = f(x) which satisfies an equation of the form P₀(x)yⁿ + P₁(x)y^{n - 1} + … + P_n(x) = 0, where
P₀(x), P₁(x), …, P_n(x) are polynomials in x.

See also: → algebraic + → function.