1
see usage paragraph below
: not carrying, staffed, or performed by people : not manned
an unmanned railroad crossing
unmanned spaceflight
2
of a hawk
: not trained
Usage of Manned and Unmanned
While manned and unmanned are still commonly used in news sources to describe spaceflights, NASA has since the early 21st century used and prescribed non-gender-specific terms, preferring such descriptors as human, piloted, and crewed for the former, and unpiloted and uncrewed for the latter.
Examples of unmanned in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The Ukrainian navy—ironically, a fleet without any large ships—got there first, with an unmanned boat that launches explosive first-person-view drones for strikes on coastal targets.
—
David Axe, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2025
That doesn't include the many unmanned assets key to the hybrid fleet envisioned by former chiefs of naval operations Adms.
—Colin Demarest, Axios, 8 Mar. 2025
Ukraine’s own production has reached impressive levels in certain vital categories, particularly but not exclusively unmanned aerial vehicles.
—Phillips Payson O’Brien, The Atlantic, 7 Mar. 2025
Cruise missiles meanwhile are unmanned vehicles that are propelled by jet engines, much like an airplane, and can be launched from ground, air, or sea.
—Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 5 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unmanned
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David Axe, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2025
That doesn't include the many unmanned assets key to the hybrid fleet envisioned by former chiefs of naval operations Adms.
—Colin Demarest, Axios, 8 Mar. 2025
Ukraine’s own production has reached impressive levels in certain vital categories, particularly but not exclusively unmanned aerial vehicles.
—Phillips Payson O’Brien, The Atlantic, 7 Mar. 2025
Cruise missiles meanwhile are unmanned vehicles that are propelled by jet engines, much like an airplane, and can be launched from ground, air, or sea.
—Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 5 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unmanned
Articles Related to unmanned
Cite this Entry
“Unmanned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unmanned. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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unmanned
adjective
un·manned
ˌən-ˈmand 
ˈən-
: having no crew aboard
an unmanned spacecraft
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