Manifesto is a written statement in which a person, group, or government publicly declares its intentions, motives, or views — issued to be read by everyone rather than addressed to anyone.
The word entered English in the 1640s from Italian manifesto, a public declaration explaining actions already taken and announcing the motive for those still planned. The Italian noun originally meant "proof," and behind it stands Latin manifestus, "plainly apprehensible, clear, evident" — the same root that gives English 📝manifest. That etymology carries the genre's defining posture: a manifesto does not reason its way toward a conclusion so much as put something into plain view and dare the reader to dispute it.
The form is defined less by its subject than by its register. Political manifestos such as the Communist Manifesto of 1848, artistic ones from the Futurists and the Dadaists, and commercial or personal ones such as 📝The Holstee Manifesto and 📝The Metamodernist Manifesto all share a declarative voice, a first-person plural or an imperative, and an explicit break with what came before. A manifesto differs from a mission statement, which describes an organization as it already is, and from a platform, which enumerates negotiable positions to be bargained over. A manifesto states terms. Both manifestos and manifestoes are standard plurals.