maneuver
ma·neu·ver/məˈnuvɚ/noun, verb
maneuver is spelled M-A-N-E-U-V-E-R, 3 syllables: ma·neu·ver. The wrong spelling people search most is manuever: about 520 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Maneuver is a noun meaning “The planned movement of troops, vehicles etc.; a strategic repositioning; (later also) a large training…”. The plural of maneuver is maneuvers.
How many letters and syllables are in maneuver?
| Letters | 8: M-A-N-E-U-V-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: ma·neu·ver |
| In writing | 3.4 times per million words; the 14,307th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, manuever, about 520 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell maneuver?
Maneuver is spelled M-A-N-E-U-V-E-R. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for maneuver in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is maneuver?
Maneuver appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce maneuver?
- US /məˈnuvɚ/
- UK /məˈnuːvə/
- /məˈnyːvɐ/
Maneuver has 3 syllables, split ma·neu·ver in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-maneuver.ogg, En-uk-Manoeuvre.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with maneuver
Also written: maneuvering.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with maneuver?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as maneuver from its last stressed vowel (/uvəɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of maneuver
- maneuvers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- manoeuvre
- maneuvering participle, present
- maneuvered participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does maneuver mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USThe planned movement of troops, vehicles etc.; a strategic repositioning; (later also) a large training field-exercise of fighting units.
The army was on maneuvers.
- 2
USAny strategic or cunning action; a stratagem.
- 3
USA movement of the body, or with an implement, instrument etc., especially one performed with skill or dexterity.
- 4
USA specific medical or surgical movement, often eponymous, done with the doctor's hands or surgical instruments.
The otorhinolaryngologist performed an Epley maneuver and the patient was relieved of his vertigo.
- 5
USA controlled (especially skillful) movement taken while steering a vehicle.
Parallel parking can be a difficult maneuver.
verb
- 1
USTo move (something, or oneself) carefully, and often with difficulty, into a certain position.
- 2
USTo guide, steer, manage purposefully
- 3
USTo intrigue, manipulate, plot, scheme
The patriarch maneuvered till his offspring occupied countless key posts
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate maneuver?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of maneuver: MSM.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Maneuver in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | manœuvre , exercice , manœuvrer |
| German | Manöver , Übung , manövrieren |
| Portuguese | manobra, exercício , manobrar , manipular |
| Spanish | maniobra, ejercicio , maniobrar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does maneuver come from?
From Middle French manœuvre (“manipulation, maneuver”) and manouvrer (“to maneuver”), from Old French manovre (“handwork, manual labor”), from Medieval Latin manopera, manuopera (“work done by hand, handwork”), from manu (“by hand”) + operari (“to work”). First recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne (800 AD) to mean "chore, manual task", probably as a calque of the Frankish *handuwerk (“hand-work”). Compare Old English handweorc, Old English handġeweorc, German Handwerk. The verb is a doublet of the verb manure.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).