unmanned

adjective

un·​manned ˌən-ˈmand 

1

see usage paragraph below : not carrying, staffed, or performed by people : not manned

an unmanned railroad crossing

unmanned spaceflight

2

of a hawk : not trained

Usage of Manned and Unmanned

While manned and unmanned are still commonly used in news sources to describe spaceflights, 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 unmanned in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The dramatic drone footage released by Ukraine’s secretive Group 13 shows the doomed ship’s crew firing into the water as the unmanned vehicles home in on their target. —Brian Glyn Williams, The Conversation, 19 July 2024

Instead of hunting for a runway, researchers have built an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can land by crashing into trees or poles and wrapping its grippy wings around them to prevent a fall. —Andrew Liszewski, The Verge, 17 July 2024

View 5 Images View gallery - 5 images Taking cues from geckos, EPFL researchers have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle with an upturned nose that crashes into vertical poles, and then wraps its wings around to perch. —Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 16 July 2024

The unmanned aerial vehicle was first used in a May 16 attack on an Israeli army garrison near the border, which injured three soldiers, the IDF said. —Samuel Granados, Washington Post, 10 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1544, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

unmanned

adjective

un·​manned ˌən-ˈmand 

ˈən-

: having no crew aboard

an unmanned spacecraft