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

By the mid-2000s, police were encountering more drug users and mentally ill people as stimulant use increased and psychiatric hospitals closed. —Ryan J. Foley, Fortune, 29 Apr. 2024

After spending time working on himself, Ashley’s bounced back mentally, physically, and emotionally, and is ready to get back out there! —Esther Kang, Peoplemag, 29 Apr. 2024

According to legal testimony, Dee Dee raised Blanchard to believe she was physically disabled and mentally ill. —Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 29 Apr. 2024

Read More: Grieving mom jailed, accused of stalking Miami-Dade cop who killed her mentally ill son Richard Hollis was shot during a chaotic encounter on the evening of June 15, 2022 – one of a number of police calls to the family’s Peppermill Apartments home in Kendale Lakes. —Camellia Burris, Miami Herald, 27 Apr. 2024

And over the past couple years, the family shared with me, he’s been working to recover, both physically and mentally. —Michael Loria, USA TODAY, 25 Apr. 2024

So that is a very humbling experience that has not gotten much easier for me mentally. —Jennifer Maas, Variety, 24 Apr. 2024

At Hollywood’s mental health courthouse, public defenders have said they’re assigned at least 500 cases each and have allegedly been told by their boss to stop declaring doubts about the ability of their mentally ill clients to stand trial, according to a grievance the union filed last year. —Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2024

The hearing was set to discuss whether the student was mentally competent to face the impact of his actions. —Yana Kunichoff, The Arizona Republic, 16 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing mentally

• mentally retarded