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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
Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN Money, 4 Oct. 2025
Very few homes, however, are manifestos of their owner’s taste quite like Villa Josie.
—Maite Sebastiá, Architectural Digest, 4 Oct. 2025
Its 93-page deregulatory manifesto reads like a wish list for turning passengers into powerless customers.
—Christopher Elliott, USA Today, 29 Sep. 2025
According to Boise police, Jonathan emailed his and Jolene’s 277-page manifesto to church leaders on July 10.
—Sean Neumann, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
Many of the people named in the manifesto obtained protection orders through a civil case after the Harmses’ first arrest.
—Alex Brizee, Idaho Statesman, 27 Sep. 2025
Presented by the Afro Fashion Association with the patronage of the City of Milan and support from the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, the evening felt less like a prizegiving and more like a manifesto, where fashion, culture, and future-facing ideas shared one stage.
—Susanna Owusu Twumwah, Vogue, 25 Sep. 2025
Eight years later, Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people in two separate shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, after hereleased a more than 80-page manifesto filled with anti-Muslim, extremist language.
—Connor Greene, Time, 24 Sep. 2025
Fashion and beauty, like film, are vehicles of identity, aspiration and a cultural manifesto.
—Bruna Nessif, Variety, 23 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Manifesto.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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