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Autonomous vs Unmanned - What's the difference?

autonomous | unmanned |

As adjectives the difference between autonomous and unmanned

is that autonomous is self-governing intelligent, sentient, self-aware, thinking, feeling, governing independently while unmanned is not operated by a person or a crew.

As a verb unmanned is

(unman).

autonomous

English

Adjective

(head)
  • Self-governing. Intelligent, sentient, self-aware, thinking, feeling, Governing independently.
  • Acting on one's own or independently; of a child, acting without being governed by parental or guardian rules.
  • (Celtic linguistics, of a verb form) Used with no subject, indicating an unknown or unspecified agent; used in similar situations as the passive in English (the difference being that the theme in the English passive construction is the subject, while in the Celtic autonomous construction the theme is the object and there is no subject).
  • Synonyms

    * (governing independently) sovereign, self-governing * (acting on ones own behalf) selfstanding, self-directed

    Antonyms

    * heteronomous

    Derived terms

    * autonomously * semiautonomous

    See also

    * autonomous area * autonomous navigation

    unmanned

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Not operated by a person or a crew.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author= Ed Pilkington
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= ‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told , passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}
    .
    an automated e-mail message sent from an unmanned mailbox

    Antonyms

    * manned * crewed

    See also

    * remote-controlled * unstaffed

    Verb

    (head)
  • (unman)