mentality
/mɛnˈtalɪti
/noun (plural mentalities)
1often derogatory The characteristic way of thinking of a person or group: I had inherited not only my father’s blood but his bourgeois mentality as well...
- In a subsequent class, a student asked if a shy person might maintain both guard and prisoner mentalities in a self-imposed psychological prison.
- The news covers race motivated attacks and discrimination, and rightly so, but while that can, in theory, be punishable, small-town mentalities and home-grown attitudes cannot.
- If you use taxis as often as I do, you'll know how drivers' attitudes and mentalities are a hazard to us and hardly ever to themselves.
Synonyms
way of thinking, cast of mind, frame of mind, turn of mind, way someone's mind works, mind, mind set, psychology, mental attitude;
outlook, personality, persona, psyche, disposition, make-up, temperament, temper
2 [mass noun] dated The capacity for intelligent thought: machines can possess mentality...
- Logic and illusion become confused and you find it hard to express your highly developed and sensitive mentality.
- This criterion is attractive even insofar as human mentality is concerned.
- For a new life to begin mentality must join with this special matter and thus the round of birth and death continues.
Synonyms
intellect, intellectual capabilities, intelligence, intelligence quotient, IQ, brainpower, brain, brains, mind, comprehension, understanding, wit, wits, reasoning, rationality, powers of reasoning, wisdom, sense, perception, imagination
informal grey matter
British informal loaf
rare ratiocination
Origin
Late 17th century (in the sense 'mental process'): from the adjective mental + -ity. Current senses date from the mid 19th century.