Exponentiation
When it is a positive integer, the exponent indicates how many copies of the base are multiplied together. For example, . The base appears times in the repeated multiplication, because the exponent is . Here, is the "base", is the "exponent", and is the "power" or, more specifically, "3 raised to the 5th power".
Exponentiation
If "z" is an integer, then the value of "w" is independent of the choice of , and it agrees with the earlier definition of exponentiation with an integer exponent.