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mental handicap

British  

noun

  1. a general or specific intellectual disability, resulting directly or indirectly from injury to the brain or from abnormal neurological development

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

Nowadays both mental handicap and mentally handicapped are considered to have inappropriate and negative connotations. The phrases learning difficulties and a person with learning difficulties are used instead

Other Word Forms

  • mentally handicapped adjective

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Whether they have a physical handicap or an emotional handicap or a mental handicap, when you’re around a horse,” Akbar says, “the energy is so powerful that it tunes the body up. That’s why there are so many therapeutic riding programs, because they do see physical changes in people who are around horses.”

From New York Times

He was practically hyperventilating, so I slowed him down and got him to tell me all about how he’s been dealing with what he considered a mental handicap he was hiding from the world.

From New York Times

A physical or mental handicap?

From Washington Times

“He was physically perfect, but he had the mental handicap thinking he was a person, having been raised by people in Louisiana,” Cecere said.

From New York Times

“He was physically perfect, but he had the mental handicap thinking he was a person having been raised by people in Louisiana,” Cecere said.

From Washington Times