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
The Shen Hai Yi Hao, also known as the Deep Sea No. 1, is a scientific expedition vessel specially designed to serve as the mothership for a manned submersible, the Jiaolong.
—
Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025
Drone operators will still be required to maintain safe separation when flying, yield to all manned aircraft, ensure the drone does not interfere with any other operations in the airspace and abide by all current FAA flight notices and restrictions.
—Ayesha Ali, ABC News, 5 Aug. 2025
The poles also present good places for ice mining — good news for NASA’s manned Artemis III mission, which is aiming to land at the lunar south pole next year.
—Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 6 Mar. 2025
The initiative was intended to replace Abrams tanks and Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles with a fleet of manned and unmanned systems.
—Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today, 2 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for manned
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025
Drone operators will still be required to maintain safe separation when flying, yield to all manned aircraft, ensure the drone does not interfere with any other operations in the airspace and abide by all current FAA flight notices and restrictions.
—Ayesha Ali, ABC News, 5 Aug. 2025
The poles also present good places for ice mining — good news for NASA’s manned Artemis III mission, which is aiming to land at the lunar south pole next year.
—Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 6 Mar. 2025
The initiative was intended to replace Abrams tanks and Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles with a fleet of manned and unmanned systems.
—Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today, 2 Aug. 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 28 Aug. 2025.
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manned
adjective
: carrying or performed by a person
manned spaceflight
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