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# bias

«bias» in Mova's school dictionary: **an unfair way of favouring one person, side or idea over…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a bias, biases; also uncountable); verb (bias, biases, biased, biasing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Bias is an unfair way of favouring one person, side or idea over others, often without good reason: a referee with a bias towards one team. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#m1)

2) To bias someone or something is to make them unfair or one-sided; «biased» means unfair and one-sided. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#m2)

3) In maths and science, bias is when results are pushed in one direction by the way you test or collect data, so they are not fair or accurate. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#m3)

4) In sewing, cutting cloth «on the bias» means cutting diagonally across the threads. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#m4)

5) In bowls (lawn bowls), the bias is the weight that makes the ball curve. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In media and citizenship lessons pupils learn to spot bias in news, adverts and websites: who wrote it, what side they want you to take, and what is left out. In science and maths, a fair test avoids bias; a survey asking only your friends is biased. In computing lessons, AI can show bias if it learns from unfair examples. Phrases: biased towards, biased against, without bias, unconscious bias, bias in a survey.

### examples

- The referee was accused of bias towards the home team. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x1)
- This website is biased because it only shows one side. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x2)
- Ask lots of different people so your survey is not biased. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x3)
- A coin that lands on heads too often may have a bias. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x4)
- Try to read the news without bias. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x5)
- Everyone has some bias, so it helps to check other views. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x6)
- The advert biased people towards buying the sweets. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x7)
- AI can copy the bias in the data it learns from. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/#x8)

### note

Noun: countable or uncountable (a bias, biases; some bias). Adjective: biased (spelt with one s in most places; «biassed» is rare). Pronounced «BY-us». «Biased towards» means favouring; «biased against» means unfair against. In maths: a biased dice or coin does not give each result an equal chance, so probabilities like one half or one sixth do not apply.

### In the corpora

- [Blaming the referee, the equipment or a teammate after losing is a common habit called a self-serving bias.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/67-losing-well-and-winning-well/7/)
- [Partisan means strongly supporting one side; bias means leaning towards one side instead of being fair.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/4-parties-teams-with-ideas/17/)
- [Bias means leaning towards one side; a source is where information comes from.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/10-the-news-who-makes-it-and-how/12/)
- [Remembering the times that fit your idea and forgetting the times that don't is called confirmation bias.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/13/)
- [Videos show the exciting moments; seeing only the winners and not the losers is called survivorship bias.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/172-loot-boxes-streaks-and-the-sunk-cost/17/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «bias» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bias/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.