mental age

American  

noun

Psychology.

1. the level of native mental ability or capacity of an individual, usually as determined by an intelligence test, in relation to the chronological age of the average individual at this level.

   a ten-year-old child with the mental age of a twelve-year-old; a mental age of twelve.

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mental age British  

noun

1. psychol the mental ability of a child, expressed in years and based on a comparison of his test performance with the performance of children with a range of chronological ages See also intelligence quotient

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Etymology

Origin of mental age

First recorded in 1910–15

Compare meaning

How does mental-age compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• mental age vs. chronological age

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mental age

It’s not cute watching and adult man regress to the mental age of a three-year-old.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2024

Sheila's last recorded child assessment the following April judged her to be functioning at the mental age of a child of 18 months.

From BBC ● Jan. 1, 2024

Her mental age was about 5 or 6 years old, her parents said in the claim.

From Fox News ● Jan. 21, 2020

Supreme Court decided in 2002 that intellectually disabled killers should not be executed, concluding that it was cruel and unusual to put to death a person with the mental age of a child.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2018

For example, the child whose mental age was, say, two years below normal, and who was enrolled in a class with children about two years younger than himself, was often graded “average” in intelligence.

From The Measurement of Intelligence An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale by Ellwood Patterson Cubberley