In abstract algebra, the transcendence degree of a field extension L /K is a certain rather coarse measure of the "size" of the extension. Specifically, it is defined as the largest cardinality of an algebraically independent subset of L over K.
A subset S of L is a transcendence basis of L /K if it is algebraically independent over K and if furthermore L is an algebraic extension of the field K(S) (the field obtained by adjoining the elements of S to K). One can show that every field extension has a transcendence basis, and that all transcendence bases have the same cardinality; this cardinality is equal to the transcendence degree of the extension and is denoted trdegK L or trdeg(L /K).
If no field K is specified, the transcendence degree of a field L is its degree relative to the prime field of the same characteristic, i.e., Q if L is of characteristic 0 and Fp if L is of characteristic p.
The field extension L /K is purely transcendental if there is a subset S of L that is algebraically independent over K and such that L = K(S).
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