unmanned

1 of 2

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.

unmanned

2 of 2

past tense and past participle of unman

Examples of unmanned in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Drone swarms were used to provide targeting information to ground units, while tactical UAVs, armed helicopters and unmanned ground vehicles coordinated attacks against simulated targets. — Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 4 Oct. 2026

Ukrainian forces were then able to deploy their own drones to drop unmanned ground vehicles behind enemy lines to attack the Russian troops from behind, Bolder said, without endangering their own personnel. — Sam Meredith, CNBC, 4 Oct. 2026

An unmanned Sceye airship flew from New Mexico to Japan and back, beaming mobile cell service to ordinary phones from the stratosphere. — New Atlas, 3 Oct. 2026

Capturing all the action in 360 degrees to project the band onto the screens, an unmanned camera traveled around the stage on a track. — Melinda Sheckells, HollywoodReporter, 2 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

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