skewed

[skyood]

adjective

1. distorted or biased; giving an unfair or misleading view of something.

   After the global financial crisis, he came to realize that traditional economic models offer very skewed representations of actual economic reality.

2. having an oblique or slanting direction or position; shaped, cut, or placed on a slant.

   When mounting a streetlight pole, orientation of the anchor bolts is important so that the pole base is not skewed in relation to the centerline of the roadway.

3. deliberately slanted so as to conform to a specific concept or attitude, cater to the interests of a particular group, etc. (sometimes used in combination).

   The network has launched a new youth-skewed telenovela that has been averaging around 28 million viewers in Brazil.

   His world view is skewed to the concept that the strong exist to dominate the weak, so he judges people by their direct worth to him.

4. Statistics.,  (of a distribution) having a disproportionate number of data points above or below the mean.

   There is a very skewed distribution of income, with the top 20 percent of the population earning 20 times what is earned by the poorest 20 percent.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of skew.

Other Word Forms

• unskewed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of skewed¹

skew ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

When the third goal went in, Slot's substitutions meant his team was skewed heavily towards attacking with Mac Allister short of defensive midfield partners.

Read more on BBC

A nation that declared independence on the premise that men are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” finds its own existential premise skewed and even contradicted if rights are granted otherwise.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“The distribution of income in this country was skewed and becoming more skewed, and the result was that you have more subprime customers.”

Read more on Literature

Most warned that the results could be skewed by unmeasured factors, known as confounders, such as family genetics or parental health differences.

Read more on Science Daily

In the president’s skewed accounting ledger, the gatekeepers at the global country club who don’t want him as a member must be made to pay.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• curved www.thesaurus.com
• curving www.thesaurus.com
• devious 
• errant 
• gnarled 
• meandering 
• serpentine 
• sinuous 
• twisted 
• twisting 
• winding