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
If convicted, Baltimore resident Alexis Perez Suarez, 43, could face up to three years in prison for knowingly operating an unregistered, unmanned aerial vehicle and for knowingly serving as an airman without an airman’s certificate.
—
Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 9 Feb. 2025
In the policy, a drone is commonly referred to as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) less than 55 pounds.
—Graham P. Johnson, Twin Cities, 7 Feb. 2025
The cross-country chatter these past weeks, at the Surface Navy Association conference and at WEST, proves one thing: The unmanned obsession is very real inside the U.S. Navy.
—Colin Demarest, Axios, 5 Feb. 2025
Ideas By Steve Wright February 4, 2025 2:55 PM EST
Dr. Steve Wright is a private consultant, now developing electrical propulsion and flight control systems for novel unmanned aerial vehicles for both civil and military applications.
—Steve Wright, TIME, 4 Feb. 2025
See all Example Sentences for unmanned 
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Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 9 Feb. 2025
In the policy, a drone is commonly referred to as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) less than 55 pounds.
—Graham P. Johnson, Twin Cities, 7 Feb. 2025
The cross-country chatter these past weeks, at the Surface Navy Association conference and at WEST, proves one thing: The unmanned obsession is very real inside the U.S. Navy.
—Colin Demarest, Axios, 5 Feb. 2025
Ideas By Steve Wright February 4, 2025 2:55 PM EST
Dr. Steve Wright is a private consultant, now developing electrical propulsion and flight control systems for novel unmanned aerial vehicles for both civil and military applications.
—Steve Wright, TIME, 4 Feb. 2025
See all Example Sentences for unmanned
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Dictionary Entries Near unmanned
Cite this Entry
“Unmanned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unmanned. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
unmanned
adjective
un·manned
ˌən-ˈmand 
ˈən-
: having no crew aboard
an unmanned spacecraft
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