Question

Identify the polynomial -4x

Answer 1

There is a SINGLE TERM therefore we call it a MONOMIAL.

If there had been TWO TERMS, we would call it a BINOMIAL.
Example: 3x^3 + 7
(Terms are separated by addition/subtraction).

x is the same as x^1.
We suppress the 1 exponent because it isn't meaningful.
We can see that the largest degree (exponent) on our x is 1.
So this is a FIRST DEGREE polynomial.

If we had a larger power of x we would classify it as something else.
Example: -4x^2 is a SECOND DEGREE polynomial.

So put those two pieces of information together.
Our polynomial can be classified as a FIRST DEGREE MONOMIAL.

Hope that helps.