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
Willson Contreras batted cleanup and played first base and Wilyer Abreu hit sixth and manned left field at Miami’s loanDepot Park.
—
Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
On Monday, in the first manned aerial combat of the conflict, Qatari fighter jets shot down two Iranian Su-24 bombers headed toward Al-Udeid Air Base — the US’ largest in the Middle East — and the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas complex.
—Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 5 Mar. 2026
This reduces the need to send manned aircraft into dense air defense zones.
—Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 4 Mar. 2026
Those weapons hit Iranian air defenses and essentially softened up Iranian offensive positions, paving the way for manned aircraft to come in after, according to the source.
—Matt Nighswander, NBC news, 3 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for manned
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Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
On Monday, in the first manned aerial combat of the conflict, Qatari fighter jets shot down two Iranian Su-24 bombers headed toward Al-Udeid Air Base — the US’ largest in the Middle East — and the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas complex.
—Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 5 Mar. 2026
This reduces the need to send manned aircraft into dense air defense zones.
—Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 4 Mar. 2026
Those weapons hit Iranian air defenses and essentially softened up Iranian offensive positions, paving the way for manned aircraft to come in after, according to the source.
—Matt Nighswander, NBC news, 3 Mar. 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 14 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
manned
adjective
: carrying or performed by a person
manned spaceflight
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