In chemistry, molecules with a non-collinear arrangement of two adjacent bonds have bent molecular geometry, also known as angular or V-shaped.

Certain atoms, such as oxygen, will almost always set their two (or more) covalent bonds in non-collinear directions due to their electron configuration.

[1] Nonlinear geometry is commonly observed for other triatomic molecules and ions containing only main group elements, prominent examples being nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dichloride (SCl2), and methylene (CH2).

There are several variants of bending, where the most common is AX2E2 where two covalent bonds and two lone pairs of the central atom (A) form a complete 8-electron shell.

There exist also sd-hybridised AX2 compounds of transition metals without lone pairs: they have the central angle about 90° and are also classified as bent.