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

Hunnam’s take on Gein’s voice is based on information that described him as having a very young mental age and on his mother’s insistence that she wished he’d been born a girl.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

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

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2024

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

From Fox News ● Jan. 21, 2020

The judges were told the woman's daughter is in her 20s, is 22 weeks pregnant, and has the mental age of a child aged between the age of six and nine.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2019

A single test affects mental age only to the extent of two months, and the chances of two such injustices occurring with the same child are very slight.

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