Machine tools are engineered to give high dimensional accuracy in machining operation. However, errors due to thermal effects degrade dimensional accuracy of machine tools considerably, and many machine tools are equipped with thermal error compensation function. In general, thermal errors can be generated in the angular directions as well as linear directions. Among them, thermal errors in the angular directions contribute a large amount of error components in the presence of offset distance as in the case of Abbe error. Because most of thermal error compensation function is based on a good correlation between temperature change and thermal deformation, angular thermal deformation is often to be the most difficult hurdle for enhancing compensation accuracy. In this regard, this paper investigates the effect of thermal bending to total thermal error and gives how to deal with thermally induced bending effects in thermal error compensation.