skewed

[ skyood ]

adjective

1. distorted or biased; giving an unfair or misleading view of something:

   After the global financial crisis, he came to realize that traditional economic models offer very skewed representations of actual economic reality.

2. having an oblique or slanting direction or position; shaped, cut, or placed on a slant:

   When mounting a streetlight pole, orientation of the anchor bolts is important so that the pole base is not skewed in relation to the centerline of the roadway.

3. deliberately slanted so as to conform to a specific concept or attitude, cater to the interests of a particular group, etc. (sometimes used in combination):

   The network has launched a new youth-skewed telenovela that has been averaging around 28 million viewers in Brazil.

   His world view is skewed to the concept that the strong exist to dominate the weak, so he judges people by their direct worth to him.

4. Statistics. (of a distribution) having a disproportionate number of data points above or below the mean:

   There is a very skewed distribution of income, with the top 20 percent of the population earning 20 times what is earned by the poorest 20 percent.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of skew.

Other Words From

• un·skewed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of skewed¹

skew ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

The phenomenon occurs in districts where in-person voting on election day is skewed toward Republicans, while mail ballots counted later trend toward Democrats.

From Los Angeles Times

And while experiments with animals in labs can be tightly controlled, the results may be skewed since the animal is not interacting within its natural environment.

From Science Daily

Around the same time Westside was looking for new produced shows, she recalls seeing plenty of comedy dating shows around the local scene, but they skewed young and tended to punch down.

From Los Angeles Times

In this case, he benefited from decades of skewed pro-Republican economic reporting.

From Salon

However, DiCamillo noted those results could be skewed by the historical preference of Republicans to vote in person.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• curved
• curving
• devious
• errant
• gnarled
• meandering
• serpentine
• sinuous
• twisted
• twisting
• winding