In algebra, a central polynomial for n-by-n matrices is a polynomial in non-commuting variables that is non-constant but yields a scalar matrix whenever it is evaluated at n-by-n matrices. That such polynomials exist for any square matrices was discovered in 1970 independently by Formanek and Razmyslov. The term "central" is because the evaluation of a central polynomial has the image lying in the center of the matrix ring over any commutative ring. The notion has an application to the theory of polynomial identity rings.

Example: ( x y − y x ) 2 {\displaystyle (xy-yx)^{2}} is a central polynomial for 2-by-2-matrices. Indeed, by the Cayley–Hamilton theorem, one has that ( x y − y x ) 2 = − det ( x y − y x ) I {\displaystyle (xy-yx)^{2}=-\det(xy-yx)I} for any 2-by-2-matrices x and y.