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

Video footage taken in the aftermath of two people being ejected from a boat off Key Biscayne Saturday morning, with one dying, shows the twin-engine center console spinning in circles before marine patrol officers brought the unmanned vessel under control. —David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 29 Mar. 2026

The affordable, compact ISR and counter-unmanned weapons system designed to deploy on nearly any platform, vehicle or vessel, according to L3 Harris. —Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 29 Mar. 2026

Exhibitors hawked unmanned aerial vehicles and systems to manage them; a few booths further down, other companies sold systems to shoot those same drones down. —Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 28 Mar. 2026

At least one missile struck the base, as well as multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, officials told the outlet. —Rena Rowe, The Washington Examiner, 28 Mar. 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