High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In mathematics, there are several meanings of degree depending on the subject.A degree (in full, a degree of arc, arc degree, or arcdegree), usually denoted by ° (the degree symbol), is a measurement of a plane angle, representing 1 360 of a full rotation. When that angle is with respect to a reference meridian, it indicates a location along a great circle of a sphere, such as Earth (see Geographic coordinate system), Mars, or the celestial sphere.The degree of a monomial is equal to sum of the exponents of each of the variables appearing in the monomial, e.g. the degree of x2yz3 is 2 + 1 + 3.