To slant means to lean or slope at an angle instead of standing straight up and down. A slanted roof tilts to let rain and snow slide off instead of collecting on top. When you lean a ladder against a wall, it slants upward. If you're drawing a comic book character running fast, you might slant the panels to create a feeling of speed and motion.

The word also describes presenting information in a way that favors one viewpoint over another. A news article might slant the facts by emphasizing details that support one side of an argument while downplaying others. When someone writes with a slant, they're not necessarily lying, but they are shaping how you see the situation. This kind of slant can be hard to spot because it feels like you're getting the whole story when you're actually getting a tilted version.

You might notice a slant in how two different newspapers cover the same event: one emphasizes certain facts while the other highlights different ones. Learning to recognize when information has a slant helps you think more clearly about what you read and hear. As a noun, slant can mean the angle itself (“the slant of the hill”) or a particular perspective (“What's your slant on this issue?”).