# manually

/ˈmænjuəɫi/ (US) · /mˈænjuːəli/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/manually
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. by hand

adverb · CEFR B1

using your hands to do a physical task.

For teachers: performed by hand rather than by a machine or mechanical device.

- The old gate doesn't have a motor, so you have to open it manually.
- Before the factory was modernised, workers had to sort the raw materials manually, which was both time-consuming and physically exhausting.

### 2. human intervention

adverb · CEFR B2

doing a task yourself on a computer or system instead of letting the software do it for you.

For teachers: requiring human input or control as opposed to being handled by an automated computer system.

- The software didn't update itself, so I had to enter the data manually.
- The system administrator had to override the automated security protocol and manually reset the user permissions after the server crash.

## Examples

- I have to enter the data manually every morning.
- When the automatic doors failed to open, the staff had to unlock them manually using a physical key.
- While the software can generate a basic report, the final figures must be adjusted manually to account for specific regional tax variations that the algorithm cannot yet process.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.