Manipulative

How to spell manipulative

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce manipulative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manipulative mean?

1. adjectiveTending to influence or control people in a clever, unfair, or selfish way.
2. adjectiveRelating to skilful handling or movement, especially with the hands.

Manipulative in a sentence

• Her manipulative boss took credit for every success and blamed others for the failures.

• The toddler was developing fine manipulative skills by stacking small wooden blocks.

• The documentary exposed the manipulative tactics used to pressure customers into buying.

• The therapist used gentle manipulative techniques to ease the stiffness in his shoulder.

Where does manipulative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin manipulus, which literally meant 'a handful', built from manus 'hand' and an element related to plenus 'full', so the underlying picture is of as much as the hand can hold. In Roman military life a manipulus was also a small unit of soldiers, named for the handful of hay once tied to a pole as their standard. French turned this into the verb manipuler, originally a technical term for handling a substance or apparatus skilfully, and English borrowed 'manipulate' in the early 1800s for working something deftly with the hands. The adjective 'manipulative' then developed two strands: a neutral one about physical dexterity and a darker one about handling people as if they were objects to be steered for one's own ends. The hidden 'man' for 'hand' is the memory hook: like 'manual' and 'manufacture', the word starts with the Latin hand, and the tricky stretch is the unstressed '-ipu-' in the middle.

How the word is built

• manipul- (from Latin manipulus: a handful)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -ive (adjective suffix: tending to)