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   skew

   /skjuː/

   adjective

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

   noun

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

   verb

   • 1. 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"
   • 2. make biased or distorted in a way that is regarded as inaccurate, unfair, or misleading: "the curriculum is skewed towards the practical subjects"
   • 3. cause (a distribution) to be asymmetrical: "the distributions were skewed to the right"

   Word 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.

   Derivatives

   • 1. skewness noun

   Scrabble Points: 11

   • S

     1

   • K

     5

   • E

     1

   • W

     4

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