manned

adjective

ˈmand

see usage paragraph below

: carrying, staffed, or performed by one or more people

a manned security booth

manned spaceflight

a manned mission

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 non-gender-specific terms, preferring such descriptors as human, piloted, and crewed for the former, and unpiloted and uncrewed for the latter.

Examples of manned in a Sentence

a manned mission to the moon

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Problem: Tagging Aerial Photos Both during and in the aftermath of a serious weather incident, drones and manned aircraft gather thousands of aerial photos of the affected areas. —

Eric Siegel, Forbes, 13 Jan. 2025 Privateer assists manned spacecraft, as well as the essential services that Earth relies on – think GPS and climate monitoring – by creating a data infrastructure that provides a real-time map of all the satellites and space debris surrounding Earth, all for free. —

Sophie Furley, Robb Report, 21 Dec. 2024 Drones are usually much smaller and more compact, while manned aircraft are significantly larger. —

Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 18 Dec. 2024 Most of the photos and video depict manned aircraft, according to a law enforcement source. —

Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 17 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for manned