manifest destiny
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The political doctrine or belief held by the United States of America, particularly during its expansion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
manuhfestdehstuhneeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmænəfɛstˈdɛstəni
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The political doctrine or belief held by the United States of America, particularly during its expansion, that the nation was destined to expand toward the west.
The political doctrine or belief held by many citizens of the United States of America that their system is best, and the idea that all humans would like to become Americans.
The belief that God supports the expansion of the United States of America throughout the entire North American continent except Mexico.
Alternative letter-case form of manifest destiny.
verb
informal
To exercise and realize manifest destiny; to enable the cultural and political expansion of the United States of America.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The political doctrine or belief held by the United States of America, particularly during its expansion, that the nation was destined to expand toward the west.
Used this way, manifest destiny is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.