Manifest

How to spell manifest

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce manifest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manifest mean?

1. adjectiveClear and obvious to the eye or mind; easily perceived.
2. verbTo show or demonstrate something clearly, especially a quality or feeling.
3. nounAn official list of the cargo or passengers carried by a ship, aircraft, or vehicle.

Manifest in a sentence

• adjective

  Her relief was manifest the moment the test results came back clear.

• verb

  Chronic stress can manifest as headaches and disturbed sleep.

• noun

  Customs officers checked the cargo against the shipping manifest at the dock.

• adjective

  The report made the company's financial troubles manifest to every shareholder.

• verb

  The children began to manifest real talent once they had the right teacher.

• noun

  Every passenger's name appeared on the flight manifest before takeoff.

Where does manifest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Manifest comes from the Latin manifestus, an adjective meaning 'clearly visible' or 'caught in the act', literally something 'grasped by the hand'. It joins manus, meaning 'hand', with a second element related to the verb that gives us 'offend' and 'defend', carrying the idea of striking or seizing; so the original picture is of a thing so obvious you could grab it with your hand. English took the word in through Old French in the 1300s, first as an adjective meaning 'plain to see', and the verb sense 'to make plain' followed soon after. The commercial noun, a list of cargo or passengers, is a later development from the same root, the document that makes a ship's contents evident. Because the 'manus' and 'festus' parts have blurred together, writers sometimes hesitate over the single middle vowel, but remembering the buried word 'hand' helps keep the spelling steady.

How the word is built

• mani- (from manus: hand)
• -fest (from -festus: struck or seized, related to defendere)
• standard ending