see usage paragraph below
: carrying, staffed, or performed by one or more people
a manned security booth
manned spaceflight
a manned mission
Usage of Manned and Unmanned
While manned and unmanned are still commonly used in news sources to describe spaceflights with and without human crews, respectively, NASA has since the early 21st century used and prescribed gender-neutral terms, preferring such descriptors as human, piloted, and crewed for the former, and unpiloted and uncrewed for the latter.
Examples of manned in a Sentence
a manned mission to the moon
Recent Examples on the Web
Not a single manned plane has yet been lost over Iran.
—
Bret Stephens, Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2026
This approach, often referred to as manned-unmanned teaming, aims to increase operational effectiveness while reducing risk to personnel.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 26 Mar. 2026
That came into stark relief on March 14, 2025, when Joseph Assad drove me out to Kennedy Space Center to watch a manned SpaceX flight—Crew-10—climb skyward, bound for the International Space Station.
—Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair, 19 Mar. 2026
Yet, at almost the very moment the supreme triumph of Apollo 11 unfolded, public support for the manned space program evaporated.
—Michael Carrafiello, The Conversation, 16 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for manned
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Bret Stephens, Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2026
This approach, often referred to as manned-unmanned teaming, aims to increase operational effectiveness while reducing risk to personnel.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 26 Mar. 2026
That came into stark relief on March 14, 2025, when Joseph Assad drove me out to Kennedy Space Center to watch a manned SpaceX flight—Crew-10—climb skyward, bound for the International Space Station.
—Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair, 19 Mar. 2026
Yet, at almost the very moment the supreme triumph of Apollo 11 unfolded, public support for the manned space program evaporated.
—Michael Carrafiello, The Conversation, 16 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for manned
Cite this Entry
“Manned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manned. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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manned
adjective
: carrying or performed by a person
manned spaceflight
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