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

This means the user is going to be considered mentally fragile, even though that’s unwarranted and unfair labeling. —Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025

Joseph Conway, psychotherapist and workplace mental-health trainer at Vita Health Group, told Newsweek that even positive changes can feel mentally taxing. —Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Aug. 2025

The researchers recruited 243 people aged 18 to 47, ranging from mentally healthy to those with significant symptoms of mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, in addition to those with ADHD, autism, insomnia, and other issues. —New Atlas, 17 Aug. 2025

Still, the Warren Police Department trains extensively on best practices in handling mentally distressed persons and will continue doing so. —Christina Hall, Freep.com, 14 Aug. 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