Manipulation
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The practice of manipulating or the state of being manipulated. countable, uncountable
"The dealer's manipulations could have removed cards from the deck."
- 2 the action of touching with the hands (or the skillful use of the hands) or by the use of mechanical means wordnet
- 3 The skillful use of the hands in, for example, chiropractic. countable, uncountable
"After a few minutes of manipulation each week, she obtained days of relief from her neck pain."
- 4 exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one's own advantage wordnet
- 5 The usage of psychological influence over a person, event, or situation to gain a desired outcome. countable, uncountable
"The counselor was able to reach the disturbed teen through positive psychological manipulation."
Example
More examples"That man is abusive trash who's lied in circles over and over again. We have no reason to believe that this isn't just more emotional manipulation. I've seen this exact thing happen over and over again with other abusers like him in different places. Abusers like him use their perceived instability as social capital to keep their trust and good faith alive long after it's been crushed again and again by their cruelty and perversion."
Etymology
From French manipulation, from Old French manipule, from Latin manipulus. Morphologically manipulate + -ion.
Related phrases
More for "manipulation"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.