: tending to yield one outcome more frequently than others in a statistical experiment
a biased coin
3
: having an expected value different from the quantity or parameter estimated
a biased estimate
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Bias vs. Biased
In recent years, we have seen more evidence of the adjectival bias in constructions like “a bias news program” instead of the more usual “a biased news program.” The reason is likely because of aural confusion: the -ed of biased may be filtered out by hearers, which means that bias and biased can sound similar in the context of normal speech. They are not interchangeable, however. The adjective that means “exhibited or characterized by an unreasoned judgment” is biased (“a biased news story”). There is an adjective bias, but it means “diagonal” and is used only of fabrics (“a bias cut across the fabric”).
It's also politically biased, full of slighting references to the Whigs, whom Johnson detested, and imperiously chauvinistic, wherever possible dismissing or making light of words imported from French.—Charles McGrath, New York Times Book Review, 4 Dec. 2005I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written. In the past people deliberately lied, or they unconsciously colored what they wrote, or they struggled after the truth, well knowing that they must make many mistakes; but in each case they believed that 'the facts' existed and were more or less discoverable.—Leon Wieseltier, New Republic, 17 Feb. 2003The information experts say that it's dangerous to conclude very much from talking to people because you will never interact with a scientifically selected random sample. Thus, the information you derive from meeting people is biased or anecdotal.—Will Manley, Booklist, 1 Mar. 2002But even if you think I may be biased about the book's conclusions, please trust me about its awful prose.—James Martin, Commonweal, 3 May 2002
She is too biased to write about the case objectively.
He is biased against women.
The judges of the talent show were biased toward musical acts.
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Moving too quickly without considering ethical implications can lead to biased algorithms or privacy violations.—Andrew Dunn, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025 Sometimes people looked at us in a biased way, so being able to shed that was huge.—Billboard Japan, Billboard, 12 Sep. 2025 Uri Berliner, then a senior business editor at the network, wrote it for The Free Press, a news outlet that argues the mainstream news media has become biased.—David Folkenflik, NPR, 11 Sep. 2025 Motivated reasoning occurs when a person interprets information in a biased way to arrive at a conclusion that aligns with their own wishes.—Julian Givi, The Conversation, 8 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for biased
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