unmanned
Americanadjective
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without the physical presence of a person or people on board; uncrewed.
an unmanned spacecraft.
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Falconry. (of a captured hawk) untrained for hunting with a master; unmade.
adjective
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lacking personnel or crew
an unmanned ship
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(of aircraft, spacecraft, etc) operated by automatic or remote control
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uninhabited
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falconry (of a hawk or falcon) not yet trained to accept humans
Etymology
Origin of unmanned
First recorded in 1535–45; un- 1 ( def. ) + manned ( def. )
Explanation
Something that's unmanned doesn't have a driver, pilot, captain, or anyone else controlling or steering it. An unmanned space mission is launched without human passengers or crew. When a vehicle is unmanned, it's controlled from far away or by a robotic or autopilot system. Aerial vehicles like drones, surveillance planes, and spacecraft usually have cameras so that people on the ground can see what is happening nearby or beneath them. Other things are sometimes unmanned as well: "The reference desk was unmanned, so I couldn't ask my question."
Vocabulary lists containing unmanned
Tolkien Reading Day, List 9
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 17–April 23, 2021
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"Going to the Moon"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Japan also has experience in bringing back samples from space, including JAXA's unmanned Hayabusa-2 which returned 5.4 grams of rock and dust collected from an asteroid several hundred million kilometres from Earth in 2020.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
A new frigate programme for international naval customers or sales of minehunters and unmanned drone boats to the German military are potential options, he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
Rimpac also served as a test bed for allied navies to see how its warships operated in formation with other vessels, unmanned vehicles and jet fighters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
BAE Systems unveiled a life-size model of an unmanned fighter jet in front of the new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting at the Farnborough International Air Show.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
But except for one or two enigmatic features, nothing of the sort is apparent in the exquisite profusion of Martian surface detail uncovered by unmanned spacecraft.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
