theory of mind

American

[thee-uh-ree uhv mahynd, theer-ee] / ˈθi ə ri əv ˈmaɪnd, ˈθɪər i /

Or Theory of Mind

noun

Psychology, Philosophy.

the ability to interpret one’s own and other people’s mental and emotional states, understanding that each person has unique motives, perspectives, etc. ToM, TOM

Etymology

Origin of theory of mind

First recorded in 1985–90

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.

See Examples For:

theory of mind

They demonstrate sophisticated theory of mind, tracking what others know and don’t know.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025

Like a CEO has less theory of mind for their employees.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2025

Dr. Gopnik compared the theory of mind of large language models to her own understanding of general relativity.

From New York Times ● Mar. 27, 2023

We found that sleep-deprived people were significantly less likely to want to help others, and that correlated one to one with the impairment in their theory of mind network.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 14, 2022

At any rate, there does not exist a single fact against the functional theory of mind.

From A Grammar of Freethought by Chapman Cohen

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023