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

The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was described by police as mentally unstable. —Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 12 Sep. 2025

French also was a champion for approaching critical incidents involving the mentally ill in a less violent way. —Rick Hurd, Mercury News, 12 Sep. 2025

In July, a judge said Decarlos Brown might not be mentally capable of understanding previous charges against him. —Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 11 Sep. 2025

Desmond, her husband, had returned from the war, not physically wounded, but mentally damaged, and was becoming an alcoholic. —Literary Hub, 11 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