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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
Los Angeles Times, 4 Mar. 2026
The gunman's manifesto allegedly included 11 Wisconsin lawmakers.
—Drake Bentley, jsonline.com, 3 Mar. 2026
Voluminous, structured, and enveloping coats dominate, along with a lot of shearling the outerwear really becomes a key stylistic manifesto.
—Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 2 Mar. 2026
This inversion did not arrive with a manifesto.
—Big Think, 2 Mar. 2026
Part retrospective, part manifesto, the set draws from more than 70 years of archival material.
—Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 27 Feb. 2026
Right Here, an 18-track manifesto of stateless, mercurial trap music.
—Olivier Lafontant, Pitchfork, 25 Feb. 2026
Like most would-be revolutions, the nudge was launched with a manifesto.
—Rob Wolfe, The Atlantic, 19 Feb. 2026
The Internet was set alight with Brooklyn's innocent public display of affection weeks after the budding chef aired his family drama in a manifesto posted online.
—Tracy Wright, FOXNews.com, 16 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Manifesto.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto. Accessed 7 Mar. 2026.
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