Manpower

How to spell manpower

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce manpower

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manpower mean?

1. nounThe number of people available or needed to do a particular job or task.

Manpower in a sentence

• The factory lacked the manpower to fill the holiday orders on time.

• Completing the project early will require additional manpower from other departments.

Where does manpower come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound formed from two native words: 'man', from Old English 'mann' meaning a person or human being, and 'power', which English took from Old French 'poeir' (to be able), itself descended from the Latin 'posse', meaning 'to be able'. The compound was coined in English to express the available human labour or working strength of a group, by direct analogy with words like 'horsepower'. It came into common use during the nineteenth century as industry and the military needed a single term for the number of people available to do work. Although 'man' originally carried the neutral sense of 'human being' in Old English, the gendered overtones it later acquired have made 'manpower' feel dated to some writers, who now prefer 'workforce' or 'staffing'. The spelling holds no real trap, since both halves are spelled exactly as the familiar standalone words.

How the word is built

• man (human worker, from Old English mann)
• power (capability, force)