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
By comparison, a manned destroyer costs $700,000 a day.
—
Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Apr. 2026
The group has been canvassing neighborhoods and manned information booths at the local farmers’ market.
—Erika I. Ritchie, Oc Register, 23 Apr. 2026
The first moon mission of its kind in over 50 years, this is an enormously important moment for manned space mission history.
—Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 11 Apr. 2026
The game, which allows for highly realistic simulations of manned (or Kerballed) missions to space (including lunar landings), has seen its second-highest number of concurrent Steam players ever, only beaten by its full launch way back in 2015.
—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 9 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for manned
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Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Apr. 2026
The group has been canvassing neighborhoods and manned information booths at the local farmers’ market.
—Erika I. Ritchie, Oc Register, 23 Apr. 2026
The first moon mission of its kind in over 50 years, this is an enormously important moment for manned space mission history.
—Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 11 Apr. 2026
The game, which allows for highly realistic simulations of manned (or Kerballed) missions to space (including lunar landings), has seen its second-highest number of concurrent Steam players ever, only beaten by its full launch way back in 2015.
—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 9 Apr. 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 26 Apr. 2026.
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manned
adjective
: carrying or performed by a person
manned spaceflight
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