Find the degree of the polynomial.

The degree of a polynomial is determined by the highest power of the variable in the polynomial expression. For example, in the polynomial \(3x^4 + 2x^3 - x + 5\), the degree is 4, as \(x^4\) is the term with the highest exponent. If there are multiple terms with the same highest degree, such as \(5x^4 + 3x^4\), the degree remains 4. Polynomials can take many forms, from simple linear equations to complex equations with multiple variables. For instance, the polynomial \(x^2 + 4x + 4\) has a degree of 2, while a polynomial like \(xy^2 + 3x^3y - 2\) exhibits the highest degree of 5, since the term \(3x^3y\) contains a total of 4 (3 from \(x\) and 1 from \(y\)) in its degree. Understanding the degree helps greatly in various applications, such as predicting the behavior of functions in calculus and solving equations in algebra.