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
He got involved in the drone industry more than twenty years ago when unmanned aerial vehicles were still developing.
—
William Jones, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2025
With an ongoing transition to automation (think unmanned platforms and remote monitoring), companies are hiring contract controls engineers and SCADA specialists by project.
—Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 9 Sep. 2025
The strikes included 810 Shahed-type attack unmanned aerial vehicles and drones of various types, nine Iskander-K cruise missiles and four Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, the air force said on Telegram.
—Joe Edwards, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Sep. 2025
Russia launched 810 Shahed-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones; 9 Iskander-K cruise missiles; and 4 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Defense Department.
—Sarah Fortinsky, The Hill, 7 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unmanned
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William Jones, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2025
With an ongoing transition to automation (think unmanned platforms and remote monitoring), companies are hiring contract controls engineers and SCADA specialists by project.
—Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 9 Sep. 2025
The strikes included 810 Shahed-type attack unmanned aerial vehicles and drones of various types, nine Iskander-K cruise missiles and four Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, the air force said on Telegram.
—Joe Edwards, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Sep. 2025
Russia launched 810 Shahed-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones; 9 Iskander-K cruise missiles; and 4 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Defense Department.
—Sarah Fortinsky, The Hill, 7 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unmanned
Cite this Entry
“Unmanned.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unmanned. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
unmanned
adjective
un·manned
ˌən-ˈmand 
ˈən-
: having no crew aboard
an unmanned spacecraft
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