manage

The word "manage" is a verb. Use it when a person is in a position of responsibility or in control of a situation:

• Jerry manages a restaurant. He’s the boss. He’s the manager.
• Lupe managed an office when she lived in Mexico. There were ten people who worked under her.
• Have you ever managed a business?
• Can you manage a large machine by yourself, or do you need help?
• Todd mismanaged the company, so he was fired. (mismanage = do a bad job of managing)

He uses a computer to manage the company.

In these sentences, the word "managing" is a gerund. Gerunds have "ing" endings and often come after a preposition:

• Sheila does a good job of managing her household. She takes care of five children and she does all the cooking and cleaning herself.
• Bill is good at managing money. That’s why he works as an accountant.

There are some slightly idiomatic applications for this word. Sometimes the word "manage" means that a person will make the best of a bad situation or do something that is difficult:

• Dan and Sue both lost their jobs, but somehow they’ll manage to make ends meet until they can find new jobs.
• Although it’s hard to believe, the woman who survived the earthquake managed to go five days without any water.
• Despite all of his financial problems, somehow he’ll manage.
• After getting lost, the kids managed to find their way out of the forest.
• How did he manage to get his hand caught in that machine?

The word "management" is a noun:

• The business is under new management.
• The management of the company was given to the owner’s daughter.
• Todd’s mismanagement of the company resulted in the loss of millions of dollars.

Click here to go to the Word of the Day page.

This page was first published on July 9, 2012. It was updated on July 30, 2015.