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

Noun The group's manifesto focused on helping the poor and stopping violence.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The manifesto, written collaboratively by the union’s methadone advocacy and reform team, came over a year after some regulations around dispensing were temporarily scaled back by the federal government. — Lindsey Ellefson, The New Republic, 27 Apr. 2022 Marine’s campaign manifesto, M La France, avoids her surname where possible, and her official poster this year features only her image and first name. — James Mcauley, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2022 This opening scene, hectic and exciting, is also a manifesto-like proclamation. — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2022 One counterargument to this manifesto will probably be that Europe has always gone its own way in space and should continue to do so. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 16 Feb. 2022 The manifesto’s text, sounding a grim warning against the consequences of nuclear warfare, was issued a few months after Einstein died. — Frances D'emilio, chicagotribune.com, 17 Apr. 2022 The manifesto’s text, sounding a grim warning against the consequences of nuclear warfare, was issued a few months after Einstein died. — Time, 17 Apr. 2022 The manifesto’s text, sounding a grim warning against the consequences of nuclear warfare, was issued a few months after Einstein died. — Frances D'emilio, Anchorage Daily News, 17 Apr. 2022 The two governments then issued a revisionist manifesto, pledging to support each other in assuming their rightful places in the international system. — Richard Fontaine, The Atlantic, 1 Mar. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'manifesto.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.