Exponential stability of system with time-varying delay is studied in this paper. By taking intermediate polynomials and slack variables, we propose novel matrix-refined weighted functions (MRWFs). Then, based on the MRWFs, we construct a suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) and propose an exponential stability condition. Finally, numerical examples verify that the stability condition proposed in this paper is more effective, which is less conservative than some past criteria.