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The manu in manufacture comes from a Latin word for what?

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manufacture

American  

[man-yuh-fak-cher, man-uh-] / ˌmæn jəˈfæk tʃər, ˌmæn ə- /

noun

• manufactures
  plural

1. 

   the making of goods or wares by manual labor or by machinery, especially on a large scale.

   the manufacture of television sets.

2. the making or producing of anything; generation.

   the manufacture of body cells.

3. the thing or material manufactured; product.

   Plastic is an important manufacture.

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verb (used with object)

• manufactures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• manufactured,
  past participle,  past
• manufacturing
  present participle

1. to make or produce by hand or machinery, especially on a large scale.

   Synonyms:

   build

2. to work up (material) into form for use.

   to manufacture cotton.

3. to invent fictitiously; fabricate; concoct.

   to manufacture an account of the incident.

4. to produce in a mechanical way without inspiration or originality.

   to manufacture a daily quota of poetry.

manufacture British  

/ ˌmænjʊˈfæktʃə /

verb

1. to process or make (a product) from a raw material, esp as a large-scale operation using machinery

2. (tr) to invent or concoct

   to manufacture an excuse

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noun

1. the production of goods, esp by industrial processes

2. a manufactured product

3. the creation or production of anything

Synonym Usage

Manufacture, assemble, fabricate apply to processes in industry. Manufacture, originally to make by hand, now means to make by machine or by industrial process: to manufacture rubber tires. To assemble is to fit together the manufactured parts of something mechanical: to assemble an automobile. To fabricate is to construct or build by fitting standardized parts together: to fabricate houses. See also make ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• manufacturing
  noun
• nonmanufacture
  noun
• nonmanufacturing
  noun
• semimanufacturing
  noun
• premanufacture
  verb (used with object)
• manufacturable
  adjective
• manufactural
  adjective
• nonmanufactured
  adjective
• semimanufactured
  adjective
• unmanufacturable
  adjective
• unmanufactured
  adjective
• well-manufactured
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• manufactures
  plural

Participles

• manufacturing
  present
• manufactured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• manufacture
  simple
• manufactures
  simple
• have manufactured
  perfect
• has manufactured
  perfect
• am manufacturing
  progressive
• are manufacturing
  progressive
• is manufacturing
  progressive
• have been manufacturing
  perfect progressive
• has been manufacturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• manufactured
  simple
• had manufactured
  perfect
• was manufacturing
  progressive
• were manufacturing
  progressive
• had been manufacturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will manufacture
  simple
• will have manufactured
  perfect
• will be manufacturing
  progressive
• will have been manufacturing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of manufacture

First recorded in 1560–70; from Middle French manufacture “the action or process of making; a factory,” equivalent to Latin manū “by hand”, ablative singular of manus “hand” + Middle French facture “making, construction” (from Late Latin factūra “action of creating, a creation, piece of handiwork,” from Latin factūra “act of fashioning; metal working,” a derivative of facere “to make, do”); the verb is derivative of the noun

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Explanation

To manufacture something, is to make or construct it, usually for industry and sale. Unless you make all your own clothes, a company probably had to manufacture them. Manufacture is generally associated with industry and factories. Henry Ford, for instance, revolutionized industry by using assembly lines to manufacture Model Ts. But manufacture can also be used for the natural word, like bees that manufacture honey. Occasionally it use used more generally to mean to construct by putting parts together. And in a pinch, you can manufacture — or make — the truth, which is a creative way to say “lie.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

manufacture manufactures manufactured manufacturing

Other robots are used in the manufacture of metal parts, but many assembly operations are still performed by hand.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

Lula wants Brazil—home to the world’s second-largest rare-earth reserves after China—to not just export raw ore, but rather build processing plants that can separate rare earths, produce metals and eventually manufacture magnets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

These are pre-production plastic pellets, about the size of a lentil, which are used as the raw material to manufacture nearly all everyday plastic goods.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

Although viruses depend entirely on the cells they infect to supply energy and manufacture proteins, producing excessive amounts of viral RNA can damage the very machinery they need to reproduce.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 21, 2026

I manufacture a doctor’s appointment for Megan, and at four o’clock, I’m on the road to Rhiannon’s town.

From "Every Day" by David Levithan

Lumentum Holdings, which manufactures optical and laser equipment used by data centers, came in at No. 11 in the ranking.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

The company manufactures semiconductors for external customers and its new processing node has been a big success.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

Airbus designs and manufactures wings for all its commercial aircraft at its Broughton site in North Wales.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Martin Blunt, a small company that manufactures strings for muscial instruments in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, has had to shift to a four-day week in the face of falling demand.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

District 2 not only manufactures weaponry, it trains and even supplies Peacekeepers.

From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins

Pharmacies received the green light to create the compounded drug when a GLP-1 shortage began in 2022 — with the stipulation that the drugs could be manufactured only during a shortage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

The Bluebottle drone, manufactured in Sydney, is named after a small jellyfish with a painful sting that washes ashore on Australian beaches.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Over 70% of all steel manufactured in the U.S. is produced from recycled materials.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

It can also be manufactured synthetically using materials derived from sources such as clove oil or rice.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

Bobby’s invention of a new chess clock that operated differently from those traditionally used in tournaments had to be specially manufactured for the match, and Vasiljevic had it made.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

South Korean and Japanese companies have been building dozens of battery factories across the U.S. to claim federal tax credits for domestic battery manufacturing that date to the Biden administration.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Rivals BMW BMW 0.73%increase; green up pointing triangle and Mercedes-Benz established a manufacturing foothold in the U.S. years ago, leaving them generally less exposed to tariff costs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

In April, Japanese company Mitsubishi Electric said it was in talks with RTX to co-produce the Amraam, including by manufacturing electronic circuit boards as well as participating in the final assembly facility.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Instead, experiments that tracked specially labeled glucose showed that muscle cells redirected the sugar toward manufacturing their own antioxidants.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

But because most manufacturing plants were in the North, it was better able to supply its army throughout the war.

From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly

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Related Words

• assemble
• complete
• construct
• create
• fabricate
• mass-produce
• synthesize

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