Manners

How to spell manners

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce manners

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manners mean?

1. nounPolite or socially acceptable ways of behaving towards other people.
2. nounThe customary habits and social practices of a particular period or community.

Manners in a sentence

• The children were taught good manners at an early age.

• The novel paints a vivid picture of the manners of rural Victorian life.

• Talking with your mouth full is considered bad manners.

• The documentary explored the manners and traditions of the coastal villages.

Where does manners come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun manus, meaning 'hand', which gave rise to the adjective manuarius, 'of or belonging to the hand'. From this came a Vulgar Latin form that reached English through the Old French maniere, originally describing a way of handling or doing something, literally how one took a thing 'in hand'. English adopted the singular 'manner' in the 1200s for a method or fashion of acting, and the plural 'manners' soon came to mean the customary ways people behaved, then narrowed to the polite social conduct we mean today. The hand connection survives in close relatives such as 'manual', 'manufacture', and 'manage', all built on that same manus root. The spelling keeps the doubled n inherited from the French form, and the unstressed -ers ending is the part writers most often slip on.

How the word is built

• manner (way of handling, from Latin manus: hand)
• -s (plural)