a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned.
The hiring manager was found to have shown bias against job applicants who wore less expensive clothing.
The magazine’s bias is toward art rather than photography.
We need to set aside our strong bias in favor of the idea and evaluate it logically.
unreasonably hostile feelings or opinions about a social group; prejudice.
The show’s host has faced accusations of racial bias.
an oblique or diagonal line of direction, especially across a woven fabric.
Statistics. a systematic as opposed to random distortion of a statistic as a result of sampling procedure.
Electronics. the application of a steady voltage or current to an active device, such as a diode or transistor, to produce a desired mode of operation.
a high-frequency alternating current applied to the recording head of a tape recorder during recording in order to reduce distortion.
Lawn Bowling.
a slight bulge or greater weight on one side of the ball or bowl.
the curved course made by such a ball when rolled.
to cause to hold or exhibit a particular bias; to influence, especially unfairly.
The defendant gave a tearful plea designed to bias the jury.
The survey was heavily biased toward highly educated people.
Electronics. to apply a steady voltage or current to (the input of an active device).
mental tendency or inclination, esp an irrational preference or prejudice
a diagonal line or cut across the weave of a fabric
electronics the voltage applied to an electronic device or system to establish suitable working conditions
bowls
a bulge or weight inside one side of a bowl
the curved course of such a bowl on the green
statistics
an extraneous latent influence on, unrecognized conflated variable in, or selectivity in a sample which influences its distribution and so renders it unable to reflect the desired population parameters
if T is an estimator of the parameter θ , the expected value of ( T–θ )
an inaudible high-frequency signal used to improve the quality of a tape recording
Plural word for bias The plural form of bias is biases, pronounced [ bahy-uhs-eez ] or [ bahy-uhs-ehz ]. The plurals of several other singular words that end in -s are also formed this way, including alias/aliases, moss/mosses, and lens/lenses. However, bias is often used as a mass noun, meaning that in some instances bias may be used as either a singular or a plural form. The plural form biasses is obsolete and should be avoided.
Bias, prejudice mean a strong inclination of the mind or a preconceived opinion about something or someone. A bias may be favorable or unfavorable: bias in favor of or against an idea. Prejudice implies a preformed judgment even more unreasoning than bias, and usually implies an unfavorable opinion: prejudice against people of another religion.
First recorded in 1520–30; from Middle French biais “obliqueness,” from Old Provençal, probably from Vulgar Latin (e)bigassius (unrecorded), from Greek epikársios “oblique,” from epi- epi- + -karsios “oblique”; alternatively, from Vulgar Latin biaxius (unrecorded) “having two axes” ( see bi-, axis)
Use the noun bias to mean a preference for one thing over another, especially an unfair one. Some biases are completely innocent: "I have a bias toward French wines." But most often, bias is used to describe unfair prejudices: "The authorities investigated a case involving bias against Latinos." It is also a verb meaning "to show prejudice for or against," as in "They claimed the tests were biased against women." (In British English, it takes an extra S in the forms biassed and biassing.) The word goes back at least to Old Provençal, a former language of southern France, in association with the sport of lawn bowling, where it referred to the tendency of a ball to roll in one direction or the other.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Friedman cites research that “people’s belief about their team’s ability is one of the best predictors of a team’s actual performance,” yet there is still potential for bias.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
"There's a lot of bias that goes into that two cents," Weber said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Online critics were quick to dredge up comments by a former Argentinian leader as proof of the country’s bias.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Employees often feel safer owning the company they know, but that can be familiarity bias masquerading as investment analysis,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Because of the championship voters’ pronounced bias toward eastern horses in general and War Admiral in particular, Seabiscuit almost certainly could not dethrone the Horse of the Year without beating him on the track.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Members of UCLA’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, which in a 2024 report found “broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus,” did not sign.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
Bias is for bulls to buy dips above $4,800/oz and attempt an advance toward $5,000/oz in the near term.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Len Bias, a 6-foot-8 basketball player at the University of Maryland who was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1986 as the NBA’s No. 2 overall pick, was a promising client.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
Bias: Buy/Accumulate on a multiyear view for investors seeking core large-cap software exposure; tactically neutral for momentum or revision-driven strategies until the technical and estimate trends improve.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
I read the report of Bias Roca, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, about their years as an illegal organization during the Batista regime.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The researchers found significant variability in the advice and spotted some potential demographic biases.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
The aim was to assess how their biases were affected by scene-by-scene content analysis of the racial representation of 29 popular kids shows and movies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
One of its core biases is that value stocks outperform growth stocks, which of course they haven’t for over a decade.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
The new study is the first to examine how depressive symptoms and attention biases may influence one another over time in children.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
Maybe then we can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of the biases and stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
“They have set up a system where it’s virtually impossible to sustain a biased policing complaint against an officer,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
He put this partially down to the first two weeks of the period tending to correlate with Wall Street two-year projections – which are biased lower.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Instead, such episodes seemed to reinforce his perception that he was climbing a mountain alone, battling institutions that were already biased against raw milk before hearing his case.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
"I might be biased saying this, but it definitely deserved to win," said the church's Reverend Kim Williams.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
“He got paid either way, so I’m not sure it mattered. He seemed completely biased against Marcus. He wanted him to plead guilty, and take a deal, but Marcus refused.”
From "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks
Yet the man might be biassed; sympathy for the deceived might paint the deceiver's conduct in colours even blacker than the truth demanded.
From Second String by Hope, Anthony
Uninfluenced, un-in′flōō-enst, adj. not subject to, or acted upon by, influence: not biassed or prejudiced.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Christina thinks you're so anxious not to favour him because he's your nephew that you are positively biassed against him.
From Caesar's Wife A comedy in three acts by Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
Shallow, superficial and paradoxical inquiries are mere empty vanities as utterly useless, from a human standpoint, as those which are biassed and one-sided.
From Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value A Rational And Pyschological Study by Leonard, Arthur Glyn
Above all, the critic should be impartial, and by no means allow himself to be biassed by either prejudice or prepossession, whether personal or political.
That meant that researchers could keep the organoids separated without biasing their experimental results.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2025
It’s a cool observation, Turner says, although more work needs to be done to ensure that the Apollo 15 site isn’t biasing the results.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 20, 2024
Bullard said it's not just inflation biasing the Fed toward more action.
From Reuters ● Sep. 14, 2023
In a 2020 study, epidemiologist Reem Masarwa, then a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues explored whether confounding factors such as heredity and maternal illness could be biasing acetaminophen research.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2023
There was one rule, or rather the absence of it, which had appealed very strongly to Mrs. Harold and gone a long way toward biasing her choice in favor of the school.
From Peggy Stewart at School by Jackson, Gabrielle E. (Gabrielle Emilie)
Even if he was going to revise his views, was it right, was it candid, was it loyal to the truth, that he should revise them under the biassing influence of Meenie's eyes?
From Strange Stories by Allen, Grant
But the truth is that, if we set aside matters of trivial import, the enormous majority of human judgments are those into which the biassing power off likes and dislikes more or less largely enters.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 6 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Ingersoll, Robert Green
He did not," he said, "state the impression upon his own mind with the purpose of biassing theirs.
From The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 1 by Scott, Walter, Sir
There would be no harm in biassing me in her favour.
From Ellen Middleton—A Tale by Fullerton, Georgiana
The subject is one of immense importance, and especially in this country, where it can seldom be discussed without adventitious circumstances biassing the inquirers.
From The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind by Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
