Meaning & use
manually
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
By using your hands or your own effort, instead of a machine or an automatic system.
Grammar: Goes after the verb or before a participle: done manually.
Patterns
- do something manually
- manually operated
The gate has to be opened manually when the power is off.
She entered the data manually because the import failed.
He tightened the bolts manually to avoid damaging the threads.
adverbnot comparable
By physical work using the hands, as opposed to office or thinking work.
Grammar: Less common; tends to describe labor.
Patterns
- work manually
They harvested the crop manually, row by row.
He worked manually all his life as a builder.
Common combinations
- manually operated
- The old pump is manually operated.
- adjust manually
- You can adjust the settings manually.
- manually override
- The pilot manually overrode the system.
- update manually
- Please update the list manually each week.
- check manually
- Inspectors checked every receipt manually.
Synonyms and how they differ
- by hand
- By hand is a more everyday phrase and fits crafts and cooking, as well as work with tools.
- physically
- Physically refers to the body generally and is not tied to hand use.
- personally
- Personally stresses that you did it yourself, not that you used your hands.
- hand-operated
- Hand-operated is an adjective for devices, and does not describe the way an action is done.
Opposites
Word family
- manual adjective
- done by hand
- manual noun
- a book of instructions
- manipulate verb
- to handle or control something skillfully
- manufacture verb
- to make goods in a factory
Commonly confused: manually or manually vs mechanically?
manually vs manually vs mechanically
Manually means done by people. Mechanically means done by a machine, so they are nearly opposites.
Practice
The printer jammed, so the clerk had to feed each page ___.
Choose one answer.
Manually means by hand, which fits the clerk doing the work. Automatically would mean the machine did it, which contradicts the jam.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “manually”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.