Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
manipulative \ma*nip"u*la*tive\, a.
Of or pertaining to manipulation; performed by manipulation.
Prone to attempt to influence others by devious or subtle psychological means, in order to induce them to do what one wants.
manipulative \ma*nip"u*la*tive\ (m[.a]*n[i^]p"[-u]*l[.a]*t[i^]v), n. (Education) Any object given to children to encourage them to learn by manipulating physical objects; applied especially to solid objects of varying geometrical shape that can be fit together to form larger aggregates.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1816, in literal sense, from manipulate + -ive. Related: Manipulatively; manipulativeness.
Wiktionary
a. Using manipulation purposefully. n. A manipulable object designed to demonstrate a mathematical concept.
WordNet
adj. skillful in influencing or controlling others to your own advantage; "the early manipulative techniques of a three-year-old"
Wikipedia
In mathematics, a manipulative is an object which is designed so that a learner can perceive some mathematical concept by manipulating it, hence its name. The use of manipulatives provides a way for children to learn concepts through developmentally appropriate hands-on experience.
The use of manipulatives in mathematics classrooms throughout the world grew considerably in popularity throughout the second half of the 20th century. Mathematical manipulatives are frequently used in the first step of teaching mathematical concepts, that of concrete representation. The second and third step are representational and abstract, respectively.
Mathematical manipulatives can be purchased or constructed by the teacher. Examples of commercial manipulatives include tangrams; Cuisenaire rods; numicon patterns; color tiles; base ten blocks (also known as Dienes or multibase blocks); interlocking cubes; pattern blocks; colored chips; links; fraction strips, blocks, or stacks; Shape Math; Polydron; Zometool; rekenreks and geoboards. Examples of teacher-made manipulatives used in teaching place value are beans and bean sticks or bundles of ten popsicle sticks and single popsicle sticks.
Virtual manipulatives for mathematics are computer models of these objects. Notable collections of virtual manipulatives include The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and the Ubersketch.
Multiple experiences with manipulatives provide children with the conceptual foundation to understand mathematics at a conceptual level and are recommended by the NCTM.
Some of the manipulatives are now used in other subjects in addition to mathematics. For example, Cuisenaire rods are now used in language arts and grammar, and pattern blocks are used in fine arts.
Usage examples of "manipulative".
There was a frightening calm to it, and twisted, manipulative energy that made her feet and hands turn to ice.
The only man she had ever wanted badly enough to have an affair with was acting like the secretive, manipulative matrix-talent that he was.
The stronger they are, the more secretive, devious, manipulative, and downright sneaky they get.
I am as ruthless and manipulative as my reputation suggests, you could lose out in an arrangement like that.
His ex-wife had been manipulative, but she had an arrogance about her from the moment they had met.
Most of the time she wondered why all the men in her life were such manipulative bastards.
She started to cast herself not only in the role of a doomed lover, Jane Eyre unable to marry her own Rochester, but also in the quite separate role of a naive victim, a woman who had suffered at the hands of an evil and manipulative madman.
Congress has not yet criminalized all sharp conduct, manipulative acts, or unethical transactions.
Where the Empire gains over the usual bloodline set-up is they use the game to recruit the cleverest, most ruthless and manipulative apices from the whole population to run the show, rather than have to marry new blood into some stagnant aristocracy and hope for the best when the genes shake out.
Angus Gordon specialized in planning and bioengineering, but more importantly he was a lateral thinker, a leader and problem solver, not a manipulative bully.
Everything we might complain about in the computer -- its insistence upon dealing with abstractions, its reduction of the qualitative to a set of quantities, its insertion of a nonspatial but effective distance between users, its preference for unambiguous and efficiently manipulative relationships in all undertakings -- these computational traits have long been tendencies of our own thinking and behavior, especially as influenced by science.
Of those, the most interesting was that of the Poms, sea-going creatures that sounded something like dolphins equipped with manipulative tentacles.
Her legend as a cruel, manipulative, almost witchlike figure began in her own lifetime.
Chimps can be sly and they can be manipulative, but even the best of them, and Leo is the Einstein of chimpanzees, does not seem to know how to lie.
After all, if true, either hypothesis - invasion by sexually manipulative extraterrestrials or an epidemic of hallucinations - teaches us something we certainly ought to know about.