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The present work describes the effect of Ce³⁺ ion doping on the structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of spinel manganese ferrite (MnFe₂O₄) nanocrystallites (NCs) using various instrument techniques. Rare earth element (REE) Cerium (Ce³⁺) doped MnFe₂O₄ NCs were prepared by a simple microwave combustion technique. In the present scenario, ferrites are widely used for photocatalytic dye degradation and antibacterial applications. Aiming to achieve this, we prepared Ce³⁺ doped MnFe₂O₄ NCs by microwave combustion method and urea as burning agent and the obtained powder samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), high resolution scanning electron microscope (HR-SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) and vibration sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The pure spinel phase formation was confirmed by XRD analysis. FTIR spectra show two prominent absorption bands under 1000 cm⁻¹, which confirms the formation of the spinel structure. HR-SEM and HR-TEM pictures demonstrated a sphere-shaped morphology and also expose the combination and agglomeration of grains, which are mostly due to the magnetic characteristics of the samples. The magnetic properties of the synthesized MnCe_xFe_2−xO₄ (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5) NCs were studied by VSM analysis at room temperature (RT) shows ferromagnetic behavior. The photodegradation results showed that MnFe₂O₄ and Ce doped MnFe₂O₄ NCs have a higher potential to degrade methylene blue (MB) and the sample MnCe_0.3Fe_1.7O₄ NCs showed superb photocatalytic performance (91.53%) compared to other samples. The antibacterial activities of Gram-positive <i>S. aureus</i>, <i>B. subtilis</i> and Gram-negative <i>K. pneumonia</i> and <i>E. coli</i> were investigated using pure and Ce³⁺ substituted MnFe₂O₄ NCs and a higher activity for MnCe_0.3Fe_1.7O₄ NCs than other samples was observed, which indicated that they can be used in biomedical applications.