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Manifesto Has Latin Roots
Manifesto is related to manifest, which occurs in English as a noun, verb, and adjective. Of these, the adjective, which means "readily perceived by the senses," is oldest, dating to the 14th century. Both manifest and manifesto derive ultimately from the Latin noun manus ("hand") and -festus, a combining form of uncertain meaning that is also found in the Latin adjective infestus ("hostile"), an ancestor of the English infest. Something that is manifest is easy to perceive or recognize, and a manifesto is a statement in which someone makes his or her intentions or views easy for people to ascertain. Perhaps the most well-known statement of this sort is the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to outline the platform of the Communist League.
Examples of manifesto in a Sentence
Lauren Coates, Variety, 11 Apr. 2025
Attendees enter through a gallery space focused on a manifesto behind each supplement product and statistics that explain the purpose and need behind each.
—Emma Sandler, Forbes.com, 2 Apr. 2025
Writing a manifesto can be like sewing rocks into your pockets.
—Audrey Wollen, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
When Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto appeared 30 years ago, the internet was brand-new.
—Charles Homans, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2025
From her searching emerges a book that might be called biography, historiography, cultural criticism, manifesto, or all of the above—a memoir, in a sense, of the internet.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2025
The investigation found that no manifesto existed.
—Arkansas Online, 3 Apr. 2025
Suleyman posted a manifesto on the Inflection website on the day Pi was released.
—IEEE Spectrum, 1 Apr. 2025
This document becomes the family office's guiding manifesto, referenced when evaluating major decisions—whether backing a disruptive startup, launching a foundation, or rebalancing the portfolio.
—Francois Botha, Forbes.com, 30 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Manifesto.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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