skewed

American  

[skyood] / skyud /

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.

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verb

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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unskewed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of skewed

skew ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

Something skewed is slanted or off-center in some way. A picture frame or viewpoint can be skewed. This is a word, like so many, that can apply to physical things or ideas. A painting on the wall is skewed if it's leaning to one side. Also, opinions are often skewed: this is another way of saying someone is biased. People often accuse news reports of being skewed toward one political viewpoint. A movie could be skewed toward one character more than the other. When you think of skewed, think of leaning and slanting of all sorts.

Example Sentences

It is with this skewed mindset that Caitlin Clark had taken a wonderful connection and cheapened it by acting like an entitled kid in an AAU tournament.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 7, 2026

Many have incentive structures heavily skewed toward these overwhelmingly dominant founders and executives.

From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026

“Post-training should induce refusal or skewed responses in LLMs that are affected by regulations from a particular state—i.e. that are required by that state to refuse or edit answers on particular topics.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026

Unless the Fed abandons that risk-management framework, focusing on a narrower inflation measure would not materially change policy if inflation risks are skewed one way or another.

From MarketWatch • May 22, 2026

His glasses sat skewed on his nose, and he was smiling so big she could see his molars.

From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat

Related Words

• curved
• curving
• devious
• errant
• gnarled
• meandering
• serpentine
• sinuous
• twisted
• twisting
• winding