bias
noun
a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned.
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In K-pop fandom, what does bias mean?
bias
1 American
[bahy-uhs]
/ ˈbaɪ əs /
noun
-
biases
plural
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- leaning, bent, proclivity, partiality, predilection, preconception, predisposition
- Antonyms:
- impartiality
-
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.
-
adjective
adverb
verb (used with object)
-
biases,
present (3rd person singular)
-
biased,
past participle, past
-
biassed,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
biasing,
present participle
-
biassing
present participle (especially British)
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- bend, predispose, dispose, incline
-
Electronics. to apply a steady voltage or current to (the input of an active device).
idioms
Bias
2
American
[bahy-uhs]
/ ˈbaɪ əs /
noun
bias
British
/ ˈbaɪəs /
noun
-
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
adjective
adverb
verb
Usage
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.
Synonym Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
biassimple
-
biasessimple
-
have biasedperfect
-
have biassedperfect
-
has biasedperfect
-
has biassedperfect
-
am biasingprogressive
-
am biassingprogressive
-
are biasingprogressive
-
are biassingprogressive
-
is biasingprogressive
-
is biassingprogressive
-
have been biasingperfect progressive
-
have been biassingperfect progressive
-
has been biasingperfect progressive
-
has been biassingperfect progressive
Past
-
biasedsimple
-
biassedsimple
-
had biasedperfect
-
had biassedperfect
-
was biasingprogressive
-
was biassingprogressive
-
were biasingprogressive
-
were biassingprogressive
-
had been biasingperfect progressive
-
had been biassingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bias
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)
Explanation
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.
Vocabulary lists containing bias
100 Top "SAT" Words
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Argumentative Writing
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In recent U.S. races, there is also no bias by age, race or gender.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Because sitting captains of industry don’t always know where to find signs of change, they often succumb to a kind of observational bias.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Wall Street analysts are often accused of having a bullish bias, but their ratings for hard-hit stocks can sometimes offer a helpful starting point.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
The studies varied in quality, but the team assessed the risk of bias and the certainty of the evidence using established research methods.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
As we have seen, to establish an equal-protection violation, one must prove intentional discrimination—conscious racial bias.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
After George Floyd’s death, the university opened an Intercultural Diversity Center, a Hate & Bias Hotline and a Safe to Pee program to deter “discrimination against gender variant people in public restrooms.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
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
That is the finding of a new research study, “Conflicting News, Negativity Bias, and Short-Term Return Predictability.”
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 24, 2025
“Is that you, Bias Montano?” my father asked of the man who had just spoken.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Another area pupils will be taught is AI's biases towards certain norms because of the information it is trained on.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Oblivious to her own biases about who Leo is and why, Mallory poses as a therapist keen on saving his life, but uses their faux sessions to mine his story for literary gold.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
This is because public data used to train many AI systems can reflect existing societal biases such as sexism or racism.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
But all inevitably carry their own biases, and none have the intimate understanding, sustained commitment or enduring responsibility that parents have for their children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
He could not help but be infected by the same biases.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
However, those associations have generally been modest, and scientists have not been sure whether biased attention contributes to depression or develops because of it.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2026
The Clippers disputed the outcome, calling it “the result of a heavily biased investigation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Researchers say that skewed ratio may be self-perpetuating: Because more boys are thought to have autism, diagnostic tools are biased toward boys’ autistic traits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
As a Kiwi, I'm biased - but clearly Liam Lawson's been performing at Racing Bulls so far this year, and he's currently 'best of the rest' in the driver standings.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Justice Department and several of the nation’s leading foundations, published in 2007, found that the impact of the biased treatment is magnified with each additional step into the criminal justice system.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
It has always been undertaken with some special practical problem in view, and is consequently always fragmentary and frequently biassed.
From Household Administration Its Place in the Higher Education of Women by Various
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 Arthur Glyn Leonard
What impartial judge would allow his mind to be biassed by them, altered and garbled as they must unquestionably be, even supposing that their originals once existed?
From Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume II (of 2) by Henry Glassford Bell
They proceed to their work with a biassed mind.
From Tobacco Leaves Being a Book of Facts for Smokers by W. A. Brennan
Travellers in general, and missionaries in particular, are biassed in several distinct ways.
From Myth, Ritual And Religion, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Andrew Lang
That smaller sample means certain demographic groups may be over- or under-covered, biasing the total estimates.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
While not all participants had pets of their own, their fondness for animals likely motivated their willingness to participate in the experiment, potentially biasing the results.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2024
But he told Reuters in an interview that the economy is biasing the central bank in that direction.
From Reuters ● Sep. 14, 2023
By periodically biasing word selection in this way, a body of text is watermarked based on a particular distribution of tagged words.
From Salon ● Apr. 6, 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 Gabrielle E. (Gabrielle Emilie) Jackson
However, this is beside the question; and I want to avoid biassing your decision in any way.
From Afloat at Last A Sailor Boy's Log of his Life at Sea by William Heysham Overend
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 Sir Walter Scott
Still the attitude created by the Tubingen theory largely persists as a biassing element in much that is written about Acts.
From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg
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 T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
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 Robert Green Ingersoll
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.
