manifesto

1 of 2

noun

man·​i·​fes·​to ˌma-nə-ˈfe-(ˌ)stō 

plural manifestos or manifestoes

: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer

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

manifesto

2 of 2

verb

manifestoed; manifestoing; manifestos

intransitive verb

: to issue a manifesto

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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

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Then Irma publishes a manifesto in the campus newspaper under the moniker Witches of Westish. — B. D. McClay, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2026

Paporakis had hundreds of rounds of rifle ammunition and a manifesto expressing white supremacist and extremist ideologies, police said. — Addison Wright, Chicago Tribune, 18 Oct. 2026

Dyrholm’s casting in Incidents of Intimacy marks a homecoming for the Danish actress who was part of the ensemble cast in Thomas Vinterberg’s Cannes Jury Prize winner The Celebration, the first film to be made under the original manifesto. — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2026

The manifesto is apparently filled with hateful thoughts toward non-white people, especially those who are Indian. — Lauren Victory, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026

But as soon as the cast is set in motion, the overriding impression is that of a manifesto springing into a college vaudeville. — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026

There were also stacks of books, journals, and thousands of pages of handwritten notes, mostly drafts of Kaczynski’s manifesto — a 35,000-word piece that justified his bombing campaign and anti-technology beliefs. — Katie Mather, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2026

Reading the manifesto after it was published in the press, Ted’s brother and sister-in-law recognized his writing style. — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2026

While Miller pores over Kaczynski’s famous manifesto, correctly concluding that its linguistic quirks will lead the authorities to him, the upshot of Murray’s study four decades before is that the young Kaczynski shows signs of schizophrenia. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 25 Sep. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Italian, denunciation, manifest, from manifestare to manifest, from Latin, from manifestus

First Known Use

Noun

1620, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1748, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for manifesto

• adagio
• altiplano
• arapaho
• arapahoe
• fortissimo
• minangkabau
• oregano
• ostinato
• pistachio
• politico
• portfolio
• presidio

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Kids Definition

manifesto

noun

man·​i·​fes·​to

ˌman-ə-ˈfes-tō

plural manifestos or manifestoes

: a public declaration of intentions or views