Mentally

How to spell mentally

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mentally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mentally mean?

1. adverbIn the mind, or in a way relating to the mind rather than the body.

Mentally in a sentence

• She mentally rehearsed her speech during the train ride.

• The long shifts left him mentally exhausted by Friday.

Where does mentally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun mens, with the stem mentis, which meant 'the mind' or 'the faculty of thinking'. From that root Latin formed the adjective mentalis, meaning 'of the mind', which passed into English through Old French in the fifteenth century as 'mental'. The adverb 'mentally' was then built in English by adding the native suffix -ly, giving the sense 'in the mind' or 'by means of the mind'. The same mens root survives in a cluster of familiar relatives such as 'mention', 'comment', and 'demented', all of which circle around the idea of the mind and of remembering. Because the word is assembled as mental plus -ly, the double 'l' you hear is simply the 'l' of mental meeting the 'l' of the suffix, which is the small spelling point worth fixing in memory.

How the word is built

• ment- (from Latin mens, mentis: mind)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)