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 unmanned demonstrator was able to hover with 30% of its fans turned off. —Joe Salas may 17, New Atlas, 17 May 2025

Since February 2023, a veritable revolution has taken place in drone warfare, as unmanned platforms have increased in versatility, affordability, and function. —Ilan Berman, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 May 2025

The subsidiary focused on enhancing private-sector collaboration in many of the same areas in which Feinberg has invested—telecommunications, cybersecurity, unmanned aviation. —Dan Alexander, Forbes.com, 23 Apr. 2025

While the complaint alleged a station had gone unmanned, company officials said Arrow, which has had guards at South Brooklyn Health since March 2022, in April 2024 assigned two guards to staff a single metal detector around the clock, with a third overnight guard in place a few days a week. —Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 7 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1544, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for unmanned

• ampersand
• beforehand
• behindhand
• bottomland
• contraband
• countermand
• dixieland
• fairyland
• fatherland
• firebrand
• hinterland
• motherland

Kids Definition

unmanned

adjective

un·​manned ˌən-ˈmand 

ˈən-

: having no crew aboard

an unmanned spacecraft