BIAS Synonyms: 124 Similar and Opposite Words

Q: How does the noun 'bias' contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of bias are predilection , prejudice , and prepossession . While all these words mean "an attitude of mind that predisposes one to favor something," bias implies an unreasoned and unfair distortion of judgment in favor of or against a person or thing. // a strong bias toward the plaintiff

Q: Where would 'predilection' be a reasonable alternative to 'bias'?

While in some cases nearly identical to bias , predilection implies a strong liking deriving from one's temperament or experience. // a predilection for travel

Q: When can 'prejudice' be used instead of 'bias'?

The synonyms prejudice and bias are sometimes interchangeable, but prejudice usually implies an unfavorable prepossession and connotes a feeling rooted in suspicion, fear, or intolerance. // a mindless prejudice against the unfamiliar

Q: When is it sensible to use 'prepossession' instead of 'bias'?

While the synonyms prepossession and bias are close in meaning, prepossession suggests a fixed conception likely to preclude objective judgment of anything counter to it. // a prepossession against technology

bias 1 of 3

noun

ˈbī-əs

Definition of bias

as in prejudice

an attitude that always favors one way of feeling or acting especially without considering any other possibilities he has a powerful bias towards sentimentality, which comes through even in his grittier stories

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in tendency

a habitual attraction to some activity or thing from her youth she revealed a strong bias toward a life of the mind

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

bias

2 of 3

adverb

as in diagonally

in a line or direction running from corner to corner made of fabric cut bias

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

bias

3 of 3

verb

as in to turn

to cause to have often negative opinions formed without sufficient knowledge bad reviews biased her against the movie, even though it starred one of her favorite actors

Synonyms & Similar Words

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How does the noun bias contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of bias are predilection, prejudice, and prepossession. While all these words mean "an attitude of mind that predisposes one to favor something," bias implies an unreasoned and unfair distortion of judgment in favor of or against a person or thing.

a strong bias toward the plaintiff

Where would predilection be a reasonable alternative to bias?

While in some cases nearly identical to bias, predilection implies a strong liking deriving from one's temperament or experience.

a predilection for travel

When can prejudice be used instead of bias?

The synonyms prejudice and bias are sometimes interchangeable, but prejudice usually implies an unfavorable prepossession and connotes a feeling rooted in suspicion, fear, or intolerance.

a mindless prejudice against the unfamiliar

When is it sensible to use prepossession instead of bias?

While the synonyms prepossession and bias are close in meaning, prepossession suggests a fixed conception likely to preclude objective judgment of anything counter to it.

a prepossession against technology

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of bias

Noun

Many of those concerns have centered on the often-troubling biases programmed into AI platforms. — Jakob McWhinney, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026 Other limitations include 10 out of the 12 trials being judged to have a high risk of bias, Sheinbein says, which could limit interpretation of the results. — Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 13 Oct. 2026

Verb

The polling failure will serve to give further ammunition to the Brazilian right and the Bolsonaro camp, which have long alleged that the nation's leading pollsters turn in work biased in favor of Lula and his Workers Party. — David Unsworth, FOXNews.com, 5 Oct. 2026 Cotton also rejected an argument by Brown’s lawyers that jurors were biased because Brown’s felony conviction for his 2009 domestic violence assault on his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, was mentioned. — Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 30 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for bias

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bias

Noun

Of course, one is inevitably loaded with expectations and prejudices, but the ideal of letting the work teach you how to consider it, as the philosopher Stanely Cavell counseled, is a useful starting point.

— Lola Seaton, The New York Review of Books, 17 Oct. 2026
Misty is a long-ago Emmy winner whose career has slipped through her fingers, in part because of reckless behavior on and off the set and and in part because of racist and ageist prejudices in casting.

— Richard Brody, New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of prejudice

Noun

For Guimaraes, a veteran community builder, the impulse behind Fashion Forward was born out of a sharp realization that the industry’s greatest bottleneck was its tendency to preach to its own choir.

— Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 13 Oct. 2026
The project places her among a wave of next-gen electronic artists like Ninajirachi, 2hollis and Jane Remover, all of whom are currently making left of center dance music with strong pop tendencies.

— Katie Bain, Billboard, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of tendency

Adverb

During demonstrations, the researchers folded the material diagonally in opposite directions, and its digital counterpart followed the changing geometry.

— Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2026
Jeans were cut on the bias — diagonally across the fabric — to change their fall.

— ABC News, ABC News, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of diagonally

Verb

He’s handcuffed to this stupid project, and swaths of people have instantly turned their back on him without knowing any of the facts.

— Payton Turkeltaub, Variety, 13 Oct. 2026
By July, the side project turned into a full-time job when MLB hired Weingardt as a principal product manager to explore changes to its flagship app.

— Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of turn

Noun

Stanton’s confession ends up being incomprehensible to anyone but himself—an irony that McCarthy, with his partiality for secret codes, seems to take great pleasure in.

— Max Callimanopulos, New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2026
That’s not partiality or wish casting on the part of your friendly political columnist.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of partiality

Noun

At Roberto Cavalli, makeup artist Yadim had the same inclination for highly pigmented metallic shades, a choice that punctuated key looks also at Jil Sander.

— Sandra Salibian, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2026
OpenAI’s closest rival, Anthropic, has shown no inclination to delay its own IPO, which is expected sometime before year’s end.

— Alyson Shontell, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of inclination

Noun

Every transformer on the grid—from the cylinders perched on utility lines to the big spiky devices at substations—trades voltage for current at a fixed ratio.

— Alex Pasternack, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Within a day, the researcher began seeing active scanning of the simulated Plex server and eventually successful attempts to infect devices.

— Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of devices

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“Bias.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bias. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of bias

noun

adverb

verb

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