bias
noun
a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned.
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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:
Becerra’s critics subscribe to “this very American bias that an immigrant only moves once to the U.S., the land of opportunity, of hope — all that mythology,” Gradilla continued.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 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
He later apologised and denied he was accusing her of bias.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
The researchers also note that food frequency questionnaires rely on participants accurately remembering what they ate, which can introduce recall bias.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
The most comprehensive studies of racial bias in the exercise of prosecutorial and judicial discretion involve the treatment of juveniles.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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
Craighill told the Post that Advantage advised Bias to moderate his spending but couldn’t force him to do that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
The Bias case raised questions about the extent to which agents can control clients’ spending sprees.
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
Bias tape is threaded through the top and tied just above the bust.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
In theory, systematic funds remove the emotionality and biases of human judgment by rigorously adhering to the rules set by their models.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
By the mid-2000s, he was blogging voluminously about cognitive biases and running an institute devoted to warning about the risks of runaway AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 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
But there are also concerns about AI models making wrong decisions as a result of biases in the patient data used to train them, and incorrect medical advice being given by AI chatbots.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Instead of allowing each officer to rely on his or her own limited experience and biases in detecting suspicious behavior, a drug-courier profile affords every officer the advantage of the agency’s collective experience and expertise.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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
As a former Norwich striker I often get accused of being biased against Ipswich, but I am not being overly negative about them here.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Yet today, many Jews believe that publishing is biased against them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
The plaintiffs alleged the department relied on documentation that “is the product of a biased, closed-off ‘process’ that ignored valid concerns raised by the public.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
I can stand across from the everyday Anne and, without being biased or making excuses, watch what she’s doing, both the good and the bad.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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 Lady Anne Hamilton
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 Fanny Burney
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 W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
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
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
That smaller sample means certain demographic groups may be over- or under-covered, biasing the total estimates.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"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
Much of the research in nutrition is funded by industry, which has been criticized for biasing the results.
From Salon ● May 1, 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
No one knew better or more dreaded the risk of biasing opinion by over or under-statements concerning the conspicuous persons of whom he wrote.
From Memoir of Jared Sparks, LL.D. by Brantz Mayer
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
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
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
There would be no harm in biassing me in her favour.
From Ellen Middleton—A Tale by Georgiana Fullerton
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
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.
