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

Lestat is basically in Hell; having turned Nicky, he is now forever severed from him mentally, while Nicky’s mental state continues to deteriorate. —Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 22 June 2026

This center could help many of them trapped in a system where the only real crime is being homeless and mentally ill. —Jim Defede, CBS News, 21 June 2026

The comedian-actress mentally prepared herself to go through Maya’s journey. —Laura Sirikul, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026

How to handle it By bearing in mind that Gemini is happiest when they’re being stimulated mentally can actually help preempt and address any fussiness. —Maressa Brown, Parents, 18 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for mentally

• accidentally
• detrimentally
• fundamentally
• governmentally
• incidentally
• incrementally
• instrumentally
• sentimentally
• temperamentally
• coincidentally
• environmentally
• experimentally