manifesto

American  

[man-uh-fes-toh] / ˌmæn əˈfɛs toʊ /

noun

• manifestoes,
  plural
• manifestos
  plural

1. a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.

2. a mission statement or other document written and disseminated by an individual or group to enumerate or expound the guiding principles and beliefs that inform their actions.

   The mail bomber submitted his 35,000-word manifesto to two major national news publications.

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manifesto British  

/ ˌmænɪˈfɛstəʊ /

noun

1. a public declaration of intent, policy, aims, etc, as issued by a political party, government, or movement

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• countermanifesto
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• manifestoes
  plural
• manifestos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of manifesto

First recorded in 1640–50; from Italian; see manifest (adjective)

Explanation

A manifesto is a public statement stating your views or your intention to do something. If you feel you should be voted "Most Likely to Succeed," you could issue a manifesto describing all the reasons why you deserve to win. Manifesto comes from the Italian word of the same spelling, meaning "public declaration explaining past actions and announcing the motive for forthcoming ones." You'll most often hear about a manifesto that's been issued by a group, like a political party or government — for example, a set of new rules that an incoming regime is going to enforce. Though organizations are more likely to create a manifesto, it's also possible for an individual to issue one about more personal ideas.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

manifesto manifestoes manifestos

She published a photo of a bullet hole in her car’s rear bumper—and a defiant manifesto.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Other manifesto pledges have included forcing water company bosses to swim in polluted rivers and banning loud snacks in cinemas.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Their new political movement began to take shape on Wednesday when he revealed the 10-point manifesto during a livestream.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

Sam writes that it’s a brilliant, funny, and blood-soaked manifesto on how to love people who have less-than-perfect politics.

From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026

To be precise, Hodges did it in a gray flannel suit, for he was a pragmatist, dubbed the “Businessman’s Governor,” a believer in method and technique over ideology and manifesto.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Voters may learn more about how policies will be paid for when the parties unveil their election manifestoes, as the campaign proper gets under way.

From BBC ● May 22, 2024

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, author of the 1909 Futurist Manifesto, and a group of like-minded artists, dropped manifestoes from the top of the Campanile into the Piazza San Marco.

From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2024

Some babysitters in the postwar period even created babysitter unions, drawing up contracts and manifestoes detailing what they would and would not do, and the working conditions they expected.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2020

It features the actress as 13 different characters — all of whom recite artist manifestoes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2018

Virtually the able art-critics were divided into two camps, from which they issued grandiloquent manifestoes, and passed judgment on art and artists, past, present, and future.

From Fragments of an Autobiography by Felix Moscheles

His manifestos mix smart political satire with comedic promises to cap croissant prices, improve WiFi on UK trains and conscript people using speakerphones on public transport.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Both major parties released manifestos with more than 1,000 individual promises each.

From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2026

Spiralism appears on subreddits, Discord servers, Facebook groups and even LinkedIn pages, where followers share AI-generated manifestos, glyphs and what followers describe as revelations from a conscious machine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026

This might sound unbelievable, but I’ve had many episodes of fear in this process — in manifestos I’ve made, at shows, in recordings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

Over the past several decades, educators, world leaders, and theorists have produced a slurry of manifestos, visions and statements on what education should look like in the 21st century.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

Related Words

• platform
• proclamation