TheK&bgr;5emission andKabsorption spectra of Mn in MnP are obtained with a two‐crystal spectrometer and a 50‐cm bent‐crystal spectrograph, respectively. TheK&bgr;5spectrum consists of a main band and a subband. The high‐energy edge of theK&bgr;5band coincides with theKabsorption edge. This suggests that MnP is a metallike compound. The obtained spectra of MnP are compared with theKspectra of metallic manganese, the PKabsorption spectrum of MnP, and the energy‐band structure of MnP. The main band and the subband in theK&bgr;5emission spectrum correspond to the filled 3dbands of manganese and the 3pband of phosphorus, respectively. The first and the second maxima in theKabsorption spectrum correspond to the empty 3dbands (related to theegorbitals containing somesandpcharacter) and 4pband of Mn, respectively.