mentally

adverb

men·​tal·​ly ˈmen-tᵊl-ē 

1

: in the mind

Mentally he promised himself that he would never again use a collar on any living creature.

—Brian Jacques

: using the mind

able to mentally calculate large sums

2

: with regard to the mind or its capacity

physically and mentally healthy people

a mentally competent adult

a mentally challenging activity

… if you try to hide the fact that you feel mentally inadequate, and so go around making jokes about your own dullness and acting as if it didn't bother you at all …

—David Foster Wallace

I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.

—Rick Riordan

Examples of mentally in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Giving space in communication is the practice of consciously stepping back—mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically—to allow the other person the freedom to think, feel, express or simply be. —Gamze Acar Bayraktaroglu, Forbes.com, 20 June 2025

Richard Veasey, The Future Lasts Forever: A Memoir The French political theorist Althusser famously murdered his wife and, deemed mentally unfit, avoided a trial and was assigned a guardian. —Diana Arterian june 20, Literary Hub, 20 June 2025

Protecting the ball means slowing down mentally and taking fewer risks. —Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025

The Miami Herald took first place on Tuesday for its Guilty of Grief series, which told the story of a mentally ill man shot by police, detailing his mother’s quest to find him treatment and for justice after his death. —Shira Moolten, Sun Sentinel, 18 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing mentally

• mentally retarded

Rhymes for mentally

• accidentally
• detrimentally
• fundamentally
• governmentally
• incidentally
• incrementally
• instrumentally
• sentimentally
• temperamentally
• coincidentally
• environmentally
• experimentally