It can be hard to type mathematical expressions here, but the second term in yours is ambiguous. It could be either
-8x - (1/6)x (where the second term is the product of one sixth and x)
or
-8x - 1/(6x) (where the second term is one divided by the product of six and x, placing x in the denominator)
(A) If it is -8x - (1/6)x, we can factor x out of both terms, yielding (-8 - 1/6)x. Then we can simplify the expression inside the parentheses, yielding (-8 1/6)x, or (-49/6)x, which is the same as (-49/6)x1. This expression is a monomial (which is a polynomial with one term), because it is the product of a coefficient and a variable, where the power of the variable is non-negative. Its degree is 1, because that is the highest power of any variable in the expression.
(B) If it is -8x - 1/(6x) , that is the same as -8x - (1/6)x-1, and it is not a polynomial, because the second term has a variable taken to a negative power.
