Word.ws English Dictionary

Manchurian candidate

Manchurian candidate noun: a person of influence, especially a politician, who is being manipulated by an enemy power to harm the interests of their own country, possibly without their own full awareness.

Noun

Manchurian candidate (plural Manchurian candidates)

  1. A person of influence, especially a politician, who is being manipulated by an enemy power to harm the interests of their own country, possibly without their own full awareness.
    • Get outta my head 'cause I don't need this!
      Why didn't I see this?
      I'm a victim Manchurian Candidate
      I have sinned by just
      Making my mind up and taking your breath away1997, “Wait and Bleed”, performed by Slipknot
    • The attacks, mainly anonymous e-mails, have woven together various threads […] —to portray Obama as the Muslim Manchurian candidate.2008 February 11, Roger Cohen, “No Manchurian Candidate”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Forms of Manchurian candidate

pluralManchurian candidates

Origin of Manchurian candidate

From the title of the 1959 novel or 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, in which the son of a prominent US political family is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a communist conspiracy. First known generic use in 1970.

Questions about Manchurian candidate

What does Manchurian candidate mean?
Manchurian candidate means a person of influence, especially a politician, who is being manipulated by an enemy power to harm the interests of their own country, possibly without their own full awareness.
What part of speech is Manchurian candidate?
Manchurian candidate is a noun.
What is the plural of Manchurian candidate?
The plural of Manchurian candidate is Manchurian candidates.

Words near Manchurian candidate in the dictionary

  1. Manchuli
  2. Manchuria
  3. Manchurian
  4. Manchurian apricot
  5. Manchurian apricots
  6. Manchurian candidate
  7. Manchurian candidates
  8. Manchurian crab apple
  9. Manchurian crab apples
  10. Manchurian crane
  11. Manchurian cranes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Manchurian candidate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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