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skew

Pronunciation: /skjuː/

Translate skew | into German | into Italian
Definition of skew

adjective

  • 1neither parallel nor at right angles to a specified or implied line; askew; crooked:his hat looked slightly skew a skew angle
  • 2 Mathematics (of a pair of lines) neither parallel nor intersecting.
  • (of a curve) not lying in a plane.
  • 3 Statistics (of a statistical distribution) not symmetrical.

noun

  • 1an oblique angle; a slant.
  • 2a bias towards one particular group or subject:the paper had a working-class skew
  • 3 [mass noun] Statistics the state of not being symmetrical.

verb

  • 1 [no object, with adverbial] suddenly change direction or position:the car had skewed across the track
  • twist or turn or cause to do this:he skewed around in his saddle [with object]:his leg was skewed in and pushed against the other one
  • 2 [with object] make biased or distorted in a way that is regarded as inaccurate, unfair, or misleading:the curriculum is skewed towards the practical subjects
  • 3 [with object] Statistics cause (a distribution) to be asymmetrical: the distributions were skewed to the right

Phrases

on the skew

neither parallel nor at right angles to a specified or implied line; askew: the whole frame is on the skew

Derivatives

skewness

noun

Origin:

late Middle English (as a verb in the sense 'move obliquely'): shortening of Old Northern French eskiuwer, variant of Old French eschiver 'eschew'. The adjective and noun (early 17th century) are from the verb

skew in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of skew in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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