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 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 unmanned in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Media reports indicated the alerts were linked to concerns about potential missile or unmanned aerial vehicle threats. —Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 2 Mar. 2026

Washington — The US military used an anti-drone laser system to shoot down a unmanned aircraft operated by US Customs and Border Protection in Texas, according to congressional representatives. —Pete Muntean, CNN Money, 27 Feb. 2026

Analysts at the firm believe that this market in the future will be rebuilt around unmanned drones, robots and autonomous systems that function remotely or autonomously with AI or another kind of pre-programmed technology. —Pia Singh, CNBC, 27 Feb. 2026

The missile is intended to intercept military aircraft, maritime patrol planes and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. —Ashley Carnahan, FOXNews.com, 22 Feb. 2026

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