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''manifest'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

manifest - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

manifest (comparative more manifest, superlative most manifest)

  • Evident to the senses, especially to the sight; apparent; distinctly perceived.
    • ✤ It re-envisioned Freddy Krueger in the “real world,” where the nightmare-dwelling being is made manifest in our reality, one where Freddy actor Robert Englund and original Nightmare On Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp play themselves, as does[Wes] Craven himself.1
    • ✤ Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight […]2
  • Obvious to the understanding; apparent to the mind; easily apprehensible; plain; not obscure or hidden.
  • (rare, with of) Detect; convicted.
    • ✤ Caliſtho there ſtood manifeſt of Shame,/And turn’d a Bear, the Northern Star became […]3

Noun

manifest (plural manifests)

  • A list or invoice of the passengers or goods being carried by a commercial vehicle or ship.
    • ✤ Coordinate terms: bill of goods, bill of sale, schedule
    • ✤ Near-synonym: bill of lading
    • ✤ *ship’s manifest *
  • (computing) A file containing metadata describing other files.
  • (obsolete) A public declaration; an open statement; a manifesto.
    • ✤ But you, authentick Witneſſes I bring,/Before the gods, and your ungrateful King,/Of this my Manifeſt: That never more/This Hand ſhall combate on the crooked Shore:/No, let the Grecian Powers oppreſs’d in Fight,/Unpity’d periſh in their Tyrants fight.4

Verb

manifest (third-person singular simple present manifests, present participle manifesting, simple past and past participle manifested)

  • (transitive) To show plainly; to make to appear distinctly, usually to the mind; to put beyond question or doubt; to display; to exhibit.
    • ✤ His courage manifested itself through the look on his face.
    • ✤ My Parts, my Title, and my perfect Soule/Shall manifeſt me rightly.5
    • ✤ And usually this manifests as them trying to prove their parent’s criticism’s and belittlings wrong.6
    • ✤ Other global taboos, such as sex and suicide, manifest themselves widely online, with websites offering suicide guides and Hot XXX Action seconds away at the click of a button. The UK government will come under pressure to block access to pornographic websites this year when a committee of MPs publishes its report on protecting children online.7
    • ✤ Molar enamel thickness is a morphological trait that differentiates African apes from hominins, being manifested most dramatically in the megadont hominins (Paranthropus spp.) with hyperthick enamel.8
    • ✤ Communication is a kind of beauty, he said – and “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”9
  • (intransitive) To become manifest; to be revealed.
    • ✤ His osteoporosis first manifested as pain in his hips.
  • (transitive, originally New Thought, now also slang) To will something to exist.
    • ✤ The process of creating your treasure map is a powerful step toward manifesting your goal. Now just spend a few minutes each day looking at it […]10
    • ✤ Undaunted by poverty, I decided to manifest a new car.11
    • ✤ To Fishback, the project is a perfect fit. “I’ve been manifesting a romance role for a really long time,” she said,12
  • (transitive) To exhibit the manifests or prepared invoices of; to declare at the customhouse.

Etymology

From Middle English manifest, manifeste, from Latin manifestus, manufestus (“palpable, manifest”), from Latin manus (“hand”) + an uncertain second element. Doublet of manifesto.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA: /ˈmæn.ɪ.fɛst/, /ˈmæn.ə.fɛst/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ænɪfɛst, -ænəfɛst
  • Hyphenation: man‧i‧fest

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 2017 October 27, Alex McLevy, “Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post- Scream Slasher Revival”, in The A.V. Club ‎, archived from the original on 5 March 2018: ↩

  2. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 4:13: ↩

  3. 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book II, page 47: ↩

  4. 1700, [John] Dryden, “Homer ’s Ilias”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book I, pages 206–7: ↩

  5. c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 312, column 1: ↩

  6. 1988, Dennis Marcellino, Sweeping it under the drug, page 123: ↩

  7. 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian ‎: ↩

  8. 2012, Justin D. Yeakel et al., “Stable isotopes, functional morphology, and human evolution: a model of consilience”, in arXiv ‎: ↩

  9. 2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, quoting Pope Francis, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN ‎, archived from the original on 27 September 2019: ↩

  10. 1982, Shakti Gawain, The Creative Visualization Workbook ‎: ↩

  11. 2014, Adrian Calabrese, How to Get Everything You Ever Wanted: Complete Guide to Using Your Psychic Common Sense ‎: ↩

  12. 2021, Kyle Buchanan, “Dominique Fishback Gave Her Heart to ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’”, in The New York Times ‎: ↩

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