manned

adjective

ˈmand 

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

At a cost of $35,000 each, the drones are an improvement on the Iranian drone and a more effective military option at a much lower price point than the deployment of manned fighter aircraft, the official said. —Luis Martinez, ABC News, 3 Dec. 2025

The advantages of such fighter drones is such that the Air Force is committed to buying 1,000 CCAs to be paired with 500 5th- and 6th-generation manned fighters. —New Atlas, 29 Nov. 2025

At the moment, this is the only launching site for Russian manned missions to the ISS. —Brendan Cole, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Nov. 2025

Traditionally, manned aircraft alone can deploy sonobuoys. —Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 22 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1583, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for manned

• armband
• backhand
• bandstand
• baseband
• broadband
• command
• cropland
• demand
• disband
• dreamland
• expand
• farmhand

Kids Definition

manned

adjective

ˈmand 

: carrying or performed by a person

manned spaceflight