Manufacture

How to spell manufacture

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce manufacture

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does manufacture mean?

1. verbTo make or produce goods on a large scale, usually using machinery.
2. nounThe process of making goods on a large scale, or the goods so produced.

Manufacture in a sentence

• verb

  The company plans to manufacture electric cars at the new plant.

• noun

  The manufacture of textiles once drove the region's economy.

• verb

  Local firms still manufacture furniture from solid oak.

• noun

  Strict standards govern the manufacture of medical devices.

Where does manufacture come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin manus, meaning 'hand', joined with factura, 'a making', which itself comes from the verb facere, 'to make or do'. The literal idea was something made by hand, which is a touch ironic given that the word now describes large-scale machine production in factories. It reached English in the late 1500s by way of French and Italian, where the noun first meant the act or process of making goods. The 'hand' sense, captured in manu-, is the same root that gives us 'manual', 'manuscript', and 'manage', and remembering that hidden 'manu' helps explain why the word is not spelled with the simpler 'man-' you might expect. The verb meaning 'to produce goods' followed in the 1600s as workshops and later factories grew.

How the word is built

• manu- (from Latin manus: hand)
• fact (from facere: to make)
• -ure (noun/verb suffix)