biased

Everyday

1. Unfairly favouring one person, side or idea over another, often without good reasons. tree →
2. (maths and science) Not fair or not random, like a biased coin or dice that lands one way more often. tree →
3. (past form of bias) Made someone or something unfair. tree →

In the lessons

In lessons on news and history pupils learn to spot biased reports that show only one side. In maths, a biased dice changes probabilities, and in science a biased test is not fair. In everyday life a biased referee favours one team. Phrases: "biased against", "biased towards", "biased opinion", "a biased coin".

Examples

• The referee was biased towards the home team. tree →
• This article is biased because it only gives one side. tree →
• A biased dice landed on six far too often. tree →
• Try not to be biased when you judge the drawings. tree →
• The survey was biased because they only asked their friends. tree →
• Everyone can be a little biased without noticing. tree →
• Our science test was unfair and biased, so we did it again. tree →

Note

Spelled with one s (biased) in most dictionaries; "biassed" is a rare British spelling. In maths, for a fair coin each side has probability 1/2; for a biased coin the probabilities are different, so you need to test it many times to find them. The noun is "bias".