Trivia Time

Who popularized the term "Manifest Destiny"?

Test Your Knowledge

manifest

American  

[man-uh-fest] / ˈmæn əˌfɛst /

verb (used with object)

• manifests,
  present (3rd person singular)
• manifested,
  past participle,  past
• manifesting
  present participle

1. 

   to make clear or evident; show plainly.

   He manifested his approval with a hearty laugh.

   Synonyms:

   express, declare, demonstrate, evidence, evince, disclose, reveal

   Antonyms:

   conceal

2. to prove; put beyond doubt or question.

   The evidence manifests the guilt of the defendant.

3. to attempt to attain (something desired) by thinking or focusing intensely on it, especially as a spiritual or self-help practice.

   I'm manifesting a new job this year.

   We cut out toxic people and manifested new friends more on our wavelength.

4. to record in the manifest of a ship, airplane, train, etc.

---

verb (used without object)

• manifests,
  present (3rd person singular)
• manifested,
  past participle,  past
• manifesting
  present participle

1. to appear or become apparent.

   The change we've been agitating for is finally manifesting in public policy.

   Damage to the house's foundation can manifest slowly over time.

2. to be created; take form.

   The course allows designers to visualize how their designs could manifest.

   His book claims we are beings of light that have manifested in physical bodies.

3. Medicine/Medical.

   1. (of a disease or injury) to become evident through the appearance of particular symptoms.

      This type of infection typically manifests with rashes, swelling, and pain.

   2. (of a patient) to have a certain symptom or medical condition.

      People who experience work-related stress often manifest with chronic digestive disorders.

4. to attempt to attain something desired by thinking about or focusing intensely on it, especially as a spiritual or self-help practice.

   The guru was trying to teach us how to manifest by using meditation and deep concentration.

adjective

1. readily perceived; evident; obvious; apparent; plain.

   The data you've shown us contains a manifest error.

   Synonyms:

   conspicuous, visible, palpable, open, patent, unmistakable, distinct, clear

   Antonyms:

   obscure

2. Psychoanalysis. of or relating to conscious feelings, ideas, and impulses that contain repressed psychic material.

   the manifest content of a dream as opposed to the latent content that it conceals.

noun

• manifests
  plural

1. a list of the cargo or goods carried by a ship, airplane, train, etc., made for the use of various agents and officials at the points of destination.

2. a list of the passengers carried on a ship, airplane, train, etc.

manifest British  

/ ˈmænɪˌfɛst /

adjective

1. easily noticed or perceived; obvious; plain

2. psychoanal of or relating to the ostensible elements of a dream Compare latent

   manifest content

---

verb

1. (tr) to show plainly; reveal or display

   to manifest great emotion

2. (tr) to prove beyond doubt

3. (intr) (of a disembodied spirit) to appear in visible form

4. (tr) to list in a ship's manifest

noun

1. a customs document containing particulars of a ship, its cargo, and its destination

2. 1. a list of cargo, passengers, etc, on an aeroplane

   2. a list of railway trucks or their cargo

   3. a fast freight train carrying perishables

Usage

What does manifest mean? Manifest describes something that is readily understood, obvious, or apparent upon viewing, as in Saying the sky is full of flying pigs is manifest nonsense. To manifest something is to prove beyond all doubt, as in Climate change is manifesting itself through the increase of superstorms. To manifest also means to display or show plainly, as in Clara’s embarrassment manifested itself on her face as a blush. A manifest is a list of cargo carried by a plane, ship, truck, or train. To manifest the cargo is to list it on a manifest. Example: He managed to manifest a smile despite being so uncomfortable.

Synonym Usage

See display.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• manifester
  noun
• manifestness
  noun
• nonmanifestness
  noun
• premanifest
  verb
• remanifest
  verb (used with object)
• supermanifest
  verb (used with object)
• manifestable
  adjective
• nonmanifest
  adjective
• self-manifest
  adjective
• unmanifest
  adjective
• manifestly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• manifests
  plural

Participles

• manifesting
  present
• manifested
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• manifest
  simple
• manifests
  simple
• have manifested
  perfect
• has manifested
  perfect
• am manifesting
  progressive
• are manifesting
  progressive
• is manifesting
  progressive
• have been manifesting
  perfect progressive
• has been manifesting
  perfect progressive

Past

• manifested
  simple
• had manifested
  perfect
• was manifesting
  progressive
• were manifesting
  progressive
• had been manifesting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will manifest
  simple
• will have manifested
  perfect
• will be manifesting
  progressive
• will have been manifesting
  perfect progressive

---

Etymology

Origin of manifest

First recorded in 1350–1400; (adjective) Middle English manifest(e), from Latin manifestus, manufestus “detected in the act, evident, visible”; (verb) Middle English manifesten, from Middle French manifester, from Latin manifestāre, derivative of manifestus. See manus

---

Explanation

Choose the verb manifest when someone shows something for everyone to notice. You might manifest your dislike of school food by stirring it around into a big pile of slop on your tray. Coming from the Latin manifestus, "caught in the act," manifest can be used as an adjective or a noun as well as a verb. As an adjective, manifest is a formal way to say that something is apparent to the senses and is synonymous with evident, apparent, or clear. If you have strong feelings about something, they will be manifest on your face. A ship or plane's manifest is the list of cargo or passengers on a particular trip.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

manifest manifests manifested manifesting

And Shannon and Narducy et. al. manifest all of this onstage.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026

If you do not address your feelings and process them, they will manifest themselves in other ways — an unkind remark or a silent fury.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

Nieuwenhuijsen decided to revisit the ship manifest that proved that Beata and her family had returned to the Netherlands from Berbice after her husband died in 1773.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

It’s the buzziest book of the season, and I have to ask, did you manifest this?

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

Rachael stared into the light rigidly, the expression of extreme distaste still manifest.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

He plays with the limits and in the race this manifests itself as flirting with the white lines on the edge of the track.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

With the way his disorder manifests, Erika’s family can’t do something as simple as go to the movies.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

But the petroleum products are masked in manifests — labeled waste material, lubricants, residues and other items not subject to the high taxes that Mexico levies on imported fuel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

“It can take a long time to track down a source, in part because cyclosporiasis manifests itself so differently in people.”

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026

They were old cargo manifests, which sounded marginally more thrilling, from a time when the palace had been the royal residence and goods had come from every corner of the world.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

The early and rapid adoption of Muse that has manifested in recent days is also igniting fears that AI will disrupt certain industries, including financial services.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Having established the context, we can take a closer look at how this has manifested on the pitch.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

I saw it again years later, going through storage, so I must have manifested it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

This is manifested by the willingness of tech companies to bid up interest rates as they borrow to invest in artificial intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

It was 1895, a fortuitous moment when physicists were pondering a host of strange new physical forces manifested in their apparatuses.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Her brother might feel the same way, but his sadness and sentimentality may be manifesting in a different way.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

On others, handwritten spells manifesting joy or health dance across the white surface.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

Martin Luther King Jr described America as manifesting a "schizophrenic personality" long before the nationwide disillusionment with the Dream began.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

We looked up, taking in Ross in all his Afro-permed glory, manifesting a leafy forest out of what had been a mountain’s dense shadow.

From Salon ● May 2, 2026

It’s a very scary thing, manifesting without understanding what’s happening to you, though it’s a fright nearly all peculiar children experience because so few of us are born to peculiar parents.”

From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• demonstrate
• embody
• illustrate
• prove
• reveal
• signify

---