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 The plural form biasses is obsolete and should be avoided.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
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
“Despite a recent 25% pullback from highs, the seasonal chart suggests a bullish bias for the next several months,” they say.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 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
Yet there is often a weak correlation between degrees of explicit and implicit bias; many people who think they are not biased prove when tested to have relatively high levels of bias.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Bias, child protection and intellectual property involve a much larger universe of developers and deployers, and existing regulatory models can answer those challenges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 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
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
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
“Is that you, Bias Montano?” my father asked of the man who had just spoken.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Users of Chinese open-source models can tweak the models to bypass most censorship, though some say they can’t fully undo the influence of biases built into the training data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 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
But after an investor has begun to participate in the markets, he or she may have developed biases that are hard to overcome.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 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
I began thinking about what would happen if we all just acknowledged our brokenness, if we owned up to our weaknesses, our deficits, our biases, our fears.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
The doctor of the diaries comes across as all too human—stubborn, biased, vain and vindictive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
I’m definitely biased, but you’re moving to the best city in the world.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Denise Webb, a 61-year-old who works as a support worker in the area, accused Farage of being "biased", "negative" and "not a very nice man".
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 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
Surely I am biased by nostalgia and tradition.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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
I could not have been biassed an instant by those who know not how to appreciate her.
From The Wanderer (Volume 4 of 5) or, Female Difficulties by Burney, Fanny
These gentlemen know the river well enough as it now is, and are not biassed by old memories of what it once was but is no longer.
From Boating by Woodgate, W. B.
As minds are differently biassed, this fact will be differently judged.
From Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume I) by Lindley, Augustus F.
It may be inaccurate, and biassed and acrid, but it presents the family circle from within by one of themselves, and no more vivid picture can exist of that strange cockatrice brood of Pitts.
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
Some economists viewed this increase as an anomaly given that the sector accounted for about 16% of total employment and speculated that a low response rate could be biasing the numbers higher.
From Reuters ● Oct. 3, 2023
Generated text can be watermarked by secretly tagging a subset of words and then biasing the selection of a word to be a synonymous tagged word.
From Salon ● Apr. 6, 2023
It can mean, for example, that a forensics lab—already strapped for funding and time—needs an extra person to serve as a case manager who screens possibly biasing information from a blinded analyst.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 18, 2023
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
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
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.
