manoeuvre

Manoeuvre is a movement or a series of movements planned to achieve a particular aim. It covers a wide range of activities, from military operations and navigational tactics to everyday, controlled movements of vehicles and people. A manoeuvre implies skill, timing, and deliberate action rather than a routine motion. As a noun, it can denote the act of moving or a strategy used to gain an advantage; as a verb, to manoeuvre means to guide or manipulate something with care.

The word is of French origin, from manœuvre, meaning a movement or exercise, and ultimately linked to Latin roots such as manus “hand” and operari “to work.” In English it is typically spelled manoeuvre in British English and maneuver in American English, with the corresponding verb forms accordingly.

Contexts include military planning, transportation and driving, navigation and aviation, maritime operations, medicine, and sports or performing arts. In each case a manoeuvre denotes a deliberate, skilled action such as a tactical deployment, a parking or turning maneuver, a course change or aerobatic move, a ship maneuver, or a diagnostic or therapeutic action named as a manoeuvre (for example the Valsalva manoeuvre or the Dix-Hallpike manoeuvre).

In modern usage, the term often carries connotations of strategic or deft action in pursuing a goal, whether on a battlefield, on a road, at sea, in the clinic, or in sport. The American and British spellings remain the primary distinction between uses.