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

This fits a wider trend in modern warfare, where networked unmanned systems are key for battlefield awareness and precise targeting. —Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 1 May 2026

Cars are left unmanned, hazard lights blinking while their owners rush in to retrieve takeout orders. —Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 30 Apr. 2026

For instance, the Pentagon has lost 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones — sophisticated unmanned aircraft that can cost $30 million or more apiece — underscoring how quickly the financial toll has mounted. —Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 30 Apr. 2026

Ukraine is making strides in developing and training AI models for unmanned systems using real battlefield data. —Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 20 Apr. 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