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 non-gender-specific 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
No mission on the scale of a return to the moon or a manned voyage to Mars could conceivably be brought off by the U.S. acting alone, much less by a Republican administration alone or within the time frame of practical politics.
—
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
Blue Origin's 11th manned spaceflight, NS-31, included owner Jeff Bezos' fiancee Lauren Sanchez, singer Katy Perry, TV journalist Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist who now heads an engineering firm, Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.
—Alexx Altman-Devilbiss, Baltimore Sun, 14 Apr. 2025
India and Pakistan can more readily deploy drones and exacerbate tensions without the political and military risks associated with the use of manned aircraft.
—Aqil Shah, Foreign Affairs, 23 May 2025
On Thursday, another manned mission will launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to Tiangong.
—Sophia Saifi, CNN Money, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for manned
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
Blue Origin's 11th manned spaceflight, NS-31, included owner Jeff Bezos' fiancee Lauren Sanchez, singer Katy Perry, TV journalist Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist who now heads an engineering firm, Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.
—Alexx Altman-Devilbiss, Baltimore Sun, 14 Apr. 2025
India and Pakistan can more readily deploy drones and exacerbate tensions without the political and military risks associated with the use of manned aircraft.
—Aqil Shah, Foreign Affairs, 23 May 2025
On Thursday, another manned mission will launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to Tiangong.
—Sophia Saifi, CNN Money, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for manned
Cite this Entry
“Manned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manned. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
manned
adjective
: carrying or performed by a person
manned spaceflight
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share