manor

American  

[man-er] / ˈmæn ər /

noun

• manors
  plural

1. (in England) a landed estate or territorial unit, originally of the nature of a feudal lordship, consisting of a lord's demesne and of lands within which he has the right to exercise certain privileges, exact certain fees, etc.

2. any similar territorial unit in medieval Europe, as a feudal estate.

3. the mansion of a lord with the land belonging to it.

4. the main house or mansion on an estate, plantation, etc.

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manor British  

/ ˈmænə /

noun

1. (in medieval Europe) the manor house of a lord and the lands attached to it

2. (before 1776 in some North American colonies) a tract of land granted with rights of inheritance by royal charter

3. a manor house

4. a landed estate

5. slang a geographical area of operation, esp of a gang or local police force

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Usage

What’s the difference between manor and manner? A manor is a mansion or the main house of an estate. The word manner means a way of doing something, as in Please exit the building in an orderly manner. The plural form manners refers to polite ways of behaving. Both words are always used as nouns, and they are pronounced exactly the same. Manner has a few different meanings, but they mostly all relate to how things are done or how someone behaves. The word manor once commonly referred to an estate (the tract of land itself), but it eventually came to refer to the large house on the estate. Still, a house that you’d call a manor is usually a big mansion surrounded by a lot of land. For example, the mansion where Bruce Wayne lives is called Wayne Manor. A good way to remember the spelling is to ask the question: Who lives in Wayne Manor—is it Batman or Bruce Wayne?As for how to remember the spelling of manner, just remember that it would be not nice to spell it without two n’s (just downright impolite, really). Here’s an example of manor and manner used correctly in a sentence. Example: The grounds of the manor were decorated in a stately manner, with beautiful gardens and hedges. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between manor and manner.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• submanor
  noun
• intermanorial
  adjective
• manorial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• manors
  plural

Etymology

Origin of manor

1250–1300; Middle English maner < Old French manoir, noun use of manoir to remain, dwell < Latin manēre to remain; see mansion

Explanation

A manor is the house of a lord — pretty fancy stuff. If you like to read 18th-century British novels, you probably read about a lot of people having dinner, dance, and restrained romance in their manors. Manor comes from the Old French manoir, meaning "dwelling place," but a manor isn't just any old dwelling place. In the days when people still had titles of nobility, the houses and the grounds of the nobles were known as manors. If you tell someone that his house is a manor, that's like saying it's so opulent and lovely that it could have belonged to a lord.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

manor manors

The silver, pewter and brass items were taken from the 16th Century manor house at Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire, on 30 July.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

In Wales, the series could showcase new places, like Llanvihangel Court, which became the Holmes family’s historic countryside manor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026

Her work included enlarging and remodelling the medieval manor at Hardwick, now known as Hardwick Old Hall.

From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2026

Within days, Alison is invited to a colloquium of scholars in an English manor that has historic connections to Barton.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

The entire continent was now a vast American manor, within which the people could expand unrestricted by foreign opposition.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Think of the manors in “Clue,” or “Murder By Death.”

From Salon ● Mar. 20, 2025

Reminders of these painful histories are visible in the buildings dotting Kharkiv’s streets, from aristocratic manors to Stalinist neoclassical structures, cathedrals, monuments to poets, and modern-era cultural centers.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 27, 2022

But Moorish-style manors, with horseshoe arches and keyhole windows, often sit beside boxy, white, Bauhaus-inspired villas on the coastal escarpment, so the discomfort is probably worth it.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 18, 2021

It used to be said in English manors that you drank wines purchased by your father and bought wines to be consumed by your children.

From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2021

He wrote more about Ayortha than I ever wished to know: how the guilds were structured; the number of gallons of milk produced in a year by one Ayorthaian cow; the construction of their manors.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Related Words

• mansion