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

Although no publicly available evaluation has classified Stines as mentally deficient, a number of coworkers and friends interviewed by state police said Stines was acting strangely in the days leading up to the shooting of Mullins. —Andy Rose, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2025

Advertisement Experts have said that any such policy is almost certain to face immediate legal challenges, and that implementing the rule would rely on potential buyers self-declaring as mentally ill or a court determining them to be mentally defective. —Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 5 Sep. 2025

Solve a puzzle Puzzles are a great way to mentally challenge your pup’s brain and activate their sense of smell. —Kelsey Monstrola, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2025

Krause said his employees have extensive experience in picking out bad actors, straw purchasers, people who are homicidal, suicidal, mentally unstable or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. —Mark Vancleave, Twin Cities, 5 Sep. 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