Lexicon ·
manifesting
verb, present participle, usually with the partner as its object
- Stated meaning
- Imagining the partner you want, in the belief that doing so makes meeting them more likely.
- Operating meaning
- A requisition for a partner, written in detail and submitted to nobody, which credits the list when someone arrives and the writer when nobody does.
- Origin
- Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year for 2024, in the sense of imagining a thing into likelihood, and applied to partners by a self-help shelf that includes a 49-day program for calling in "the One".
In November 2024 Cambridge Dictionary made manifest its word of the year (opens in a new window), in the sense “to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen.” It had been looked up nearly 130,000 times that year. A psychologist quoted in the announcement said it is what psychologists call magical thinking, and that manifesting love could lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment.
The love shelf had a program before the word had a year. Calling in “The One” (opens in a new window), revised and expanded in 2021, is a 49-day course of manifesting meditations, visualizations and journal exercises, to “attract what we’re ready to receive.” A dating app then published a guide of its own (opens in a new window): write a dream relationship list, embody the qualities on it and become “a vibrational match,” and use the bio on the app to “align your energy with the person you’re manifesting.” In a May 2025 poll (opens in a new window) of 3,967 American adults, 39 percent said manifesting can make something happen even without any other action.
Under load, manifesting is a requisition with no supplier. The list is specific and the wait is open-ended, and the method allocates the credit in advance. A partner who arrives answers the list, and one who does not shows only that the writer was not yet a match. The app’s guide asks for the list to go in the bio, where other users browse. That is the one step in the method that reaches another person, and it is the step the app supplies.