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

For more than a decade, Musk has been promising Tesla investors and customers that the company's electric vehicles will soon be upgradable to self-driving cars, capable of serving as unmanned robotaxis, or of completing a cross-country trip without any human intervention. —Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 15 Dec. 2025

With Europe alarmed about Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) entering its airspace, a Swedish firm has said its interception device can help protect the eastern flank of NATO, and the wider region, as the alliance mulls a drone wall to counter Moscow’s hybrid threats. —Brendan Cole, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Dec. 2025

Somehow, we got used to the idea of unmanned flying machines that can rain down death. —Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 10 Dec. 2025

But Navy leaders describe the Saronic award as a model for introducing future unmanned platforms into the fleet. —Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 9 Dec. 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