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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
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 11 July 2025
Though there’s no formal design manifesto from NFL Properties confirming it, the idea is far from just wishful thinking.
—Charlotte Observer, 3 July 2025
Authorities have not found a manifesto and are still searching for a motive as well as what drew him to Coeur d’Alene.
—N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 30 June 2025
The move to extend the franchise was part of the governing Labour Party’s manifesto: Labour argued that the change would bring greater fairness to 16- and 17-year-olds, many of whom already work and are eligible to serve in the military.
—Ben Smith, semafor.com, 18 July 2025
The Labour Party promised to lower the voting age to include 16 and 17-year-olds in its 2024 manifesto.
—Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 17 July 2025
His motive remains unknown and no manifesto has been found.
—Yahya Abou-Ghazala, CNN Money, 30 June 2025
The suspect in the killing, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, wrote a manifesto blasting the industry, according to investigators.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 25 June 2025
Gendron’s manifesto discusses how he was radicalized on the dark web and inspired to attack after watching videos of Brenton Tarrant’s 2019 massacre of 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
—Alex Hinton, The Conversation, 17 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Manifesto.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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