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

Her history underscores the need for state law and how the criminal justice system interacts with those mentally ill to be reviewed, advocates told the Journal Sentinel. —David Clarey, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025

You're not allowed to mentally terrorize someone. —Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 23 Oct. 2025

Standing up on that stage, Bevere did realize that that achievement alone made the entire preparation process — both emotionally, mentally and physically, as both a mom and a pageant contestant — worth it. —Zoey Lyttle, PEOPLE, 23 Oct. 2025

The fear of regaining weight can make reverse dieting and adding calories back into your eating pattern mentally challenging. —Emily Brown, Verywell Health, 23 Oct. 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