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

All three were arrested on charges of aiding escape and other offenses relating to a correctional facility, along with unlawful operation of an unmanned aerial device. — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 13 Aug. 2026

Wisk would contribute autonomous electric aircraft development, Insitu would add defense operations and unmanned aircraft systems, and SkyGrid would bring digital airspace capabilities. — Alex Krutz, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Russian Defense Ministry figures reported separately put the number of participating aircraft, helicopters and unmanned systems at around 30. — Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Raytheon and Composite Energy Technologies (CET) have demonstrated a new underwater launch capability for the HADALUS unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV). — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 11 Aug. 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