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
Shot-down unmanned remote control drones supplant human military casualties — but not so for civilians.
—
Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 27 July 2025
The idea comes from the world of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concepts here on Earth, but is designed for exploring another world: Mars.
—Leonard David, Space.com, 24 July 2025
Report In separate press releases on Tuesday, the Joint Staff reported that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was twice detected off Taiwan's east coast.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 July 2025
While there are only one to three primes competing for major weapon systems, there are dozens of companies producing unmanned systems, software.
—Michael Brown, Forbes.com, 20 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for unmanned
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Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 27 July 2025
The idea comes from the world of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concepts here on Earth, but is designed for exploring another world: Mars.
—Leonard David, Space.com, 24 July 2025
Report In separate press releases on Tuesday, the Joint Staff reported that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was twice detected off Taiwan's east coast.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 July 2025
While there are only one to three primes competing for major weapon systems, there are dozens of companies producing unmanned systems, software.
—Michael Brown, Forbes.com, 20 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for unmanned
Cite this Entry
“Unmanned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unmanned. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
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unmanned
adjective
un·manned
ˌən-ˈmand 
ˈən-
: having no crew aboard
an unmanned spacecraft
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