psychological
Americanadjective
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of or relating to psychology.
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pertaining to the mind or to mental phenomena as the subject matter of psychology.
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of, pertaining to, dealing with, or affecting the mind, especially as a function of awareness, feeling, or motivation.
psychological play;
psychological effect.
adjective
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of or relating to psychology
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of or relating to the mind or mental activity
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having no real or objective basis; arising in the mind
his backaches are all psychological
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affecting the mind
Other Word Forms
- nonpsychologic adjective
- nonpsychological adjective
- prepsychological adjective
- pseudopsychological adjective
- psychologically adverb
- semipsychologic adjective
- semipsychological adjective
- unpsychological adjective
Etymology
Origin of psychological
First recorded in 1785–95; psycholog(y) + -ical
Compare meaning
How does psychological compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Psychological means mental or emotional rather than physical. After a shock, your problems, and even your physical pain, stem from psychological sources rather than any bodily ailment. The word psychological is used to describe things that are primarily mental or emotional, but it can also be used when referring to the field of psychology. You might be interested in studying the psychological issues of teen and childhood in college. Watch out if someone uses psychological warfare on you. He or she uses your own emotions to attack you as when someone tries to guilt you into doing something.
Vocabulary lists containing psychological
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
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myPerspectives 8.1
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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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.
“It has had a psychological impact on my life; it has restricted me, and I can’t move freely if I have to travel to India,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2026
Imagine, Mr. Nguyen says, that one day all of humanity’s problems are solved: “all our medical problems, all our resource scarcity, all our psychological problems.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
Getting 36 points on the board should offer a huge psychological boost for Leeds.
From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026
The other major focus is on psychological risks of spending long periods of time on the Moon or Mars.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
Many of the counter-intuitive results cited in this book are psychological tricks similar to the above, which can induce a kind of innumeracy in even the most numerate.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
