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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
Brian Bennett, Time, 11 Dec. 2025
Other photos unsealed Tuesday included the gun allegedly used by Mangione to fatally shoot Thompson, as well a silencer and a red notebook that contained his manifesto, according to prosecutors.
—Joshua Rhett Miller, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2025
In the early twentieth century, artists were driven to write manifestos proclaiming the groundbreaking nature of their work.
—Erin Parish, Miami Herald, 5 Dec. 2025
Much the same could be said of Kemp’s work, which is a manifesto for radical change thinly veiled by social history.
—Linda Kinstler, The Atlantic, 1 Dec. 2025
The table of contents page, for example, included a word cloud with the words Black and power, cut and paste together in the style of a manifesto.
—Literary Hub, 25 Nov. 2025
Earlier shooters in El Paso and Christchurch posted manifestos on 8chan before livestreaming their crimes.
—Stepheny Price , Ashley Papa, FOXNews.com, 23 Nov. 2025
One roars unimpeded through blogs, memes, forums, group texts, Substacks, and chatrooms, while another unfolds at a more stately pace, by means of policy papers, revisionist histories, and conservative political-philosophical manifestos.
—Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2025
The MySpace page is a hell of an artistic manifesto, explaining the whole Livvy concept.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 22 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Manifesto.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto. Accessed 16 Dec. 2025.
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