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
Thirty years ago, the same university developed the country’s first manned single bogie maglev train, making China the third nation to master the technology.
—
Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 26 Dec. 2025
Russia’s ongoing ground invasion of Ukraine has resulted in sparsely manned frontlines stretching more than 600 miles from Kharkiv Oblast in the north to Kherson in the south.
—Justin Bronk, Foreign Affairs, 15 Dec. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for manned
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Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 26 Dec. 2025
Russia’s ongoing ground invasion of Ukraine has resulted in sparsely manned frontlines stretching more than 600 miles from Kharkiv Oblast in the north to Kherson in the south.
—Justin Bronk, Foreign Affairs, 15 Dec. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for manned
Cite this Entry
“Manned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manned. Accessed 4 Jan. 2026.
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manned
adjective
: carrying or performed by a person
manned spaceflight
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