Bias

How to spell bias

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bias

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bias mean?

1. nounAn unfair inclination or prejudice for or against a person, group, or idea.
2. verbTo cause someone or something to favour one side unfairly.

Bias in a sentence

• noun

  The report exposed a clear bias in how promotions were awarded.

• verb

  Leading questions can bias a witness toward a particular answer.

• noun

  A good interviewer works hard to set aside personal bias.

• verb

  A small sampling error may bias the entire study.

Where does bias come from?

Language of origin: French

Bias came into English in the 1500s from the French word biais, which meant 'slant', 'slope', or 'oblique angle'. The French term is thought to descend from the Old Provençal biais, and beyond that the trail goes cold; some scholars suspect a Greek source meaning 'oblique' or 'crosswise', but the origin before French is genuinely uncertain. The word first took hold in English through the game of bowls, where a 'bias' was the weight built into one side of the ball that made it curve rather than roll straight. From that very concrete idea of a built-in lean came the familiar figurative sense: a leaning of the mind, an unfair tilt in judgement. Dressmakers later borrowed the same notion in 'cut on the bias', meaning cut diagonally across the weave. The single 's' and the plain four-letter shape are what trip writers up, since the word looks as if it ought to be longer or doubled.

How the word is built

• bias (a whole word borrowed intact, from French biais 'slant, oblique angle'); no separable prefix or suffix