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 The plural form biasses is obsolete and should be avoided.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.
"There's a lot of bias that goes into that two cents," Weber said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
In writing history, there must be intense rigor — evidence is important and if you have evidence that should counteract any bias or hypothesis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
On six separate occasions on that March afternoon, Bucknor had his calls mercilessly reversed by a faceless computer unaffected by bias, poor judgment or the fallibility of human eyesight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
One major pitfall is that it may introduce visual bias into the hiring process, she noted.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
A balloon would start up jerkily, on a great bias, and be torn by the wind or blown against the houses of the square.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
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
As a college senior, Bias bought an ankle-length fur coat, a Nissan 380ZX sports car and a gold bracelet encrusted with diamonds spelling his first name, the Washington Post reported.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
That is the finding of a new research study, “Conflicting News, Negativity Bias, and Short-Term Return Predictability.”
From MarketWatch ● 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 dominant biases of scholarship—Western, Christian, English—could be challenged from every corner of the globe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 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
"Between attentional biases and depressive symptoms, we looked at the way that they were mutually predicting one another across the time points, which is especially novel and hasn't been done before."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
But these exact same biases also show up in areas of much more consequence, like education.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
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
Mexico’s inflation was 3.55% in mid-June, with core inflation at 4.12%, and risks to the inflation forecast remain biased to the upside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 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
There always will be people who claim Davis is biased toward the Dodgers, just as people claimed his predecessor, Joe Buck, was biased toward the St. Louis Cardinals.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
In theory, peremptory strikes may increase the fairness of the proceeding by eliminating jurors who may be biased but whose biases cannot be demonstrated convincingly to a judge.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Were those iniquitous proceedings an evidence of that "Justice, by nothing biassed or inclined, Deaf to persuasion, to temptation blind; Determined without favour, and the laws O'erlook the parties to decide the cause?"
From Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume II (of 2) Including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte by Hamilton, Lady Anne
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 Bell, Henry Glassford
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
The same spirit, biassed by sentiment not ruled by reason, has remained since more has been disclosed of the real nature of this Codex208.
From The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by Burgon, John William
Then she returned to England, virulent against her brother William, 'whose kindness to her,' says Horace Walpole, no biassed witness, 'has been excessive.
From Lord Chatham His Early Life and Connections by Rosebery, Archibald Phillip Primrose
"If this person's goal, whether explicit or implicit, was in fact to understand the overall landscape of movies in this country, the algorithmic recommendation ends up seriously biasing one's understanding," the authors wrote.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2025
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
Scientists who have internalized this concern may be subconsciously biasing their models to be unrealistically conservative.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 17, 2022
Such ideas as these are corrupting courts, and biasing the public mind, and the injury is more than apparent to the observer.
From The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation by Nation, Carry Amelia
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
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
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)
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
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 Overend, William Heysham
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.
