manifest destiny

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Tucked into his speech was a mention of the 19th Century doctrine of "manifest destiny" – the idea that the US was divinely ordained to expand its territory across the continent, spreading American ideals.

From BBC • Jan. 20, 2026

It really goes back to individuals who saw manifest destiny.

From Slate • Aug. 13, 2025

Tellingly, in the upper right-hand corner, Ruscha added a cheap Western cowboy magazine, its rowdy narrative of American manifest destiny having been torn in two.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2024

In high school history classes this painting, is often used as a way of pictorially representing "manifest destiny," since it shows American settlers moving west.

From Salon • May 30, 2023

But because ambition succeeds best when disguised by virtue, he wanted to furnish the Alliance with an animating ideology—a manifest destiny, as it were, or mission civilisatrice.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann