Unmanned

How to spell unmanned

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce unmanned

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unmanned mean?

1. adjectiveOperated without a human crew or operator on board, especially of aircraft, vehicles or spacecraft.
2. adjectiveLeft without anyone present to staff or supervise a station or post.

Unmanned in a sentence

• The military deployed an unmanned drone to survey the border.

• The rural station has an unmanned ticket booth after six in the evening.

• An unmanned probe was sent to photograph the surface of Mars.

• Callers reached an unmanned desk during the lunch break.

Where does unmanned come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English formation built from the everyday word 'man', which descends from the Old English 'mann', meaning a human being or, more loosely, a person. The prefix 'un-' is one of the oldest and most productive negating elements in English, also inherited from Old English, where it reversed or denied the sense of whatever followed. The verb 'to man' developed the meaning 'to supply with people' or 'to staff', as in manning a post or a ship, and from there 'unmanned' grew to describe something left without a crew or operator. A separate, older verb 'to unman' meant to strip someone of courage or vigour, so 'unmanned' could also mean robbed of nerve. The modern technical sense, applied to aircraft, spacecraft and vehicles that carry no human aboard, became common during the twentieth century. The doubled 'n' in the spelling simply reflects the base word 'man' meeting the '-ned' ending, which catches writers who expect a single 'n'.

How the word is built

• un- (not, without)
• man (human operator)
• -ned (past participle / adjectival ending)