Management

How to spell management

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce management

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does management mean?

1. nounThe act of controlling or directing a business, organisation, or set of resources.
2. nounThe group of people who run a company or organisation.

Management in a sentence

• Good time management helped her finish the project early.

• The workers took their complaint straight to management.

• The company invested heavily in staff training and project management.

• Senior management approved the new pay structure.

Where does management come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The word grows from the verb 'manage', which English took up in the late 1500s from the Italian maneggiare, meaning 'to handle' or 'to control', especially in the sense of training and putting a horse through its paces. That Italian verb traces back to the Latin manus, meaning 'hand', so the underlying picture is quite literally one of taking something in hand. As the verb broadened from horsemanship to the handling of business, money, and people, English added the French-derived suffix -ment to form 'management', meaning the act or art of handling affairs. The same manus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'manual', 'manipulate', and 'manufacture'. The spelling trap is the quiet middle: writers must keep the 'age' from 'manage' intact before tacking on '-ment', resisting the urge to drop the silent e or simplify the cluster.

How the word is built

• manage (from Italian maneggiare, to handle a horse)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting an action or its result)