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biased

US/ˈbaɪəst/
adjectiveB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,570 of 15,258leans written

Biased means leaning unfairly towards one side. A biased report, biased against them, heavily biased.

It is an accusation about the process rather than the conclusion, since a biased method can still reach a true answer by luck. In statistics it is precise: a biased estimator is one that is wrong on average.

Definitions of biased

  1. 1adjectivebiasedLeaning unfairly towards one side.B1+

    “The referee was accused of being biased towards the home team.”

biased is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Vulgar Latin

    *biaxius — with two axes

  2. Old Occitan

    biais

  3. Middle French

    biais

  4. English

    bias

  5. English, today

    biased

From bias + -ed. bias c. 1520 in the sense "oblique line". As a technical term in the game of bowls c. 1560, whence the figurative use (c. 1570). From Middle French biais, adverbially ("sideways, askance, against the grain") c. 1250, as a noun ("oblique angle, slant") from the late 16th century. The French word is likely from Old Occitan biais, itself of obscure origin, most likely from Vulgar Latin biaxius (“with two axes”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

biased in the wild

  • A series of psychological experiments in the 1960s suggested that people are biased toward confirming their existing beliefs.

    Confirmation bias

  • In a sample of more than 600 residents of the United States, more than 85% believed they were less biased than the average American.

    Bias blind spot

  • Only one participant believed that they were more biased than the average American.

    Bias blind spot

  • Studies within the chemokine receptor system also suggest that GPCR biased agonism is physiologically relevant.

    Functional selectivity

  • When a biased estimator is used, bounds of the bias are calculated.

    Bias of an estimator

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the biais family

biasbiased

biased — used about once every 3,655 pages · #8,570 · point at the bar for the others