An exponent is a small superscript number that tells you how many times a number is multiplied by itself.  For example, if you have the number 4 and you want to multiply it by itself five times you could write it out as follows: This can become too long to always write out so we use a shortcut using a superscript number.  In this case the superscript number would be “5” because we want to multiply 4 times itself five times.