Word.ws English Dictionary

mental

/ˈmɛn.təl/

mental adjective: occurring or experienced in the mind.

Adjective (1)

mental (comparative more mental, superlative most mental)

  1. (relational) Occurring or experienced in the mind.
    • I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,[…], the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “The Unexpected”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 240
    Synonyms:
    inner, psychological
  2. (relational) Relating to the mind, its activity, or its products as an object of study.
    • mental science
  3. (relational) Of or relating to intellectual as contrasted with emotional activity.
    • mental acuity
  4. (relational) Of, relating to, or being intellectual as contrasted with overt physical activity.
    • Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers...2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34
    Synonyms:
    ideological
  5. (relational) Relating to spirit or idea as opposed to matter.
    • the distinction between physical things and mental ideas
  6. Of, relating to, or affected by a psychiatric disorder.
    • a mental patient
    1. (relational) Intended for the care or treatment of persons affected by psychiatric disorders.
      • mental hospitals
    2. (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, colloquial) Mentally disordered; insane, mad, crazy.
      • He is the most mental freshman I've seen yet.
      • He went mental on us.
  7. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, colloquial, comparable) Enjoyable or fun, especially in a frenetic way.
    • That was a mental party last night.
  8. Of or relating to telepathic or mind-reading powers.
    • mental telepathy

Noun (1)

mental (plural mentals)

  1. (slang) State of mind; ellipsis of mental state.
    • y'all need to fix your mentals
  2. (India, offensive) A mentally challenged person.

Adjective (2)

mental (not comparable)

  1. (relational) Of or relating to the chin or median part of the lower jaw, genial.
    • the mental nerve, the mental region
    Synonyms:
    genial, genian
  2. (relational) Of or relating to the chinlike or liplike structure.

Noun (2)

mental (plural mentals)

  1. A plate or scale covering the mentum or chin of a fish or reptile.

mental meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mental in Hindi

relating to the mind
मानसिक mānsik

mental in Tamil

relating to the mind
மன maṉa
relating to a crazy person
கிறுக்கு kiṟukku

mental in Marathi

mental, of or pertaining to the mind
मानसिक mānsik
the mental or emotional disgust arising from the same cause
शिसारी śisārī

mental in Urdu

mental
مانس mānas, ذہنی zahnī
More languagesFewer languages
mental in Bengali
মানসিক manośik
mental in Telugu
మానసికమైన mānasikamaina
mental in Malayalam
മനസ്സിനെ സംബന്ധിച്ച, മാനസികമായ, മനോരോഗം സംബന്ധിച്ച
mental in Kannada
ಮಾನಸಿಕ, ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ, ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ, ಒಳ
mental in Punjabi
ਮਾਨਸਿਕ mānsik
mental in Gujarati
માનસિક
mental in Odia
ମାନସିକ
mental in Sanskrit
मानस mānasa
mental in Nepali
मानसिक
mental in Tagalog
isipnin
mental in Arabic
عَقْلِيّ ʕaqliyy
mental in Indonesian
mental
mental in Thai
ทางจิต

Examples of mental in a sentence

  • Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals counsel clients.
  • It is seen that the mental changes are occasioned by a change of polarity.
  • Some sort of mental and social pathology seemed to sweep over the discourse later that autumn.

All 40 example sentences with mental

Synonyms of mental

All synonyms of mental

Forms of mental

Adjective
comparativemore mental
superlativemost mental
Noun
pluralmentals

Origin of mental

Borrowing from Middle French mental, from Late Latin mentālis, from mēns (“mind, disposition; heart, soul”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

c. 1727, from Latin mentum (“the chin”) + -al.

Words formed from mental

Phrases with mental

28 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with mental

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mental

What does mental mean?
Mental means occurring or experienced in the mind.
What is mental in Hindi?
Mental in Hindi is मानसिक (mānsik). See Mental meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is mental?
Mental can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce mental?
Mental is pronounced /ˈmɛn.təl/.

Words near mental in the dictionary

  1. menta
  2. mentacide
  3. mentagra
  4. mentagraphyte
  5. mentagraphytes
  6. mental
  7. mental aberration
  8. mental aberrations
  9. mental acrobatics
  10. mental age
  11. mental ages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mental (page history and authors); मानसिक (Marathi) (page history and authors); ذہنی (Urdu) (page history and authors); mental (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mental (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਮਾਨਸਿਕ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); mental (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mental (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mental (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mental.ogg.

Cite this entry: “mental.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mental. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.