mentally retarded
"mentally-retarded" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mentally retarded” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - intellectually disabled, medically defined as having an IQ (intelligence quotient) below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors (which means having problems with basic functio...
Corpus desk
Index EN-mentally-retarded · mentally retarded · English
mentally retarded · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mentally retarded |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mentally retarded” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mentally retarded is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "intellectually disabled, medically defined as having an IQ (intelligence quotient) below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors (which means having problems with basic functio...".
No misspelling variants are generated for mentally retarded in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is mentally retarded, spelled M-E-N-T-A-L-L-Y- -R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D.
Definition
- 1intellectually disabled, medically defined as having an IQ (intelligence quotient) below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors (which means having problems with basic functional skills that affect everyday, general living).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mentally retarded appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest, which is representing the children - from the north-eastern city of Ostrava - said that the education ministry and local authorities had for decades "perpetuated a system which routinely brands disproportionate numbers of Gypsies as mentally retarded".
Per court rules, an original petition should be granted where "exceptional circumstances warrant the exercise of the court's discretionary powers" and "adequate relief cannot be obtained in any other form or from any other court." Given unanimous opinion that he is mentally retarded and thus ineligible for execution, Hill's case presents such "exceptional…
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.