manus

Manus, manus is FOURTH declension and, unusually for that declension, FEMININE. The fourth is mostly masculine, so manus and domus are the two exceptions a beginner actually meets. It runs manus, manus, manui, manum, manu in the singular and manus, manuum, manibus, manus, manibus in the plural.

Look at that list again: the nominative singular, the genitive singular, the nominative plural and the accusative plural are all manus. Four cases, one spelling. Vowel length separates some of them in speech and nothing separates them on the page, so with this noun the surrounding words are the only evidence you have.

Its second sense is a band or company of men, common in military prose, and it extends to legal power: in manu esse is to be under someone's authority, and manus was the technical term for a husband's legal control of his wife. Manus dare, literally "to give the hands", is to surrender, from the gesture of holding them out to be tied. English took manual, manuscript, manufacture, manage, manoeuvre, manacle and maintain, which is manu tenere, "to hold in the hand".