adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Characterized by appeal to mental states (such as beliefs, desires, intentions, feelings) in describing, explaining, or predicting behaviour or other phenomena; employing or pertaining to vocabulary or predicates about such states (often contrasted with behaviorist or purely physicalist approaches).

   "Mentalistic explanations allay curiosity and bring inquiry to a stop."

2. 2
   Of or relating to mentalism or mentalists.

Example

More examples

"Mentalistic explanations allay curiosity and bring inquiry to a stop."

Etymology

From mentalist + -ic.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.