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highbrow

highbrow

8 8.1
About art or ideas that serious, educated people like
  • adjective
  • /ˈhaɪˌbraʊ/
: intelectual
  • Passages are being published in a highbrow magazine.
  • highbrow and lowbrow
  • highbrow culture
  • highbrow literature

And I was going to be on TV and not just telling jokes, but like doing a little highbrow sort of thing with a big star.

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Examples

  • For highbrow culture producers, scholarly debates were not simply clashes of ideas.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Ethics may sound like a topic that is a bit too "highbrow" for many sports administrators and coaches.

    Academic text (1998)
  • ...your opinion about highbrow music.

  • Yet it had a highbrow, scientific air about it.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • And what highbrow work of fiction might you be reading?

  • But if your tastes are marginally more highbrow, I also have tips.

  • The Criterion was highbrow but not all that avant-garde.

    Academic text (2010)
  • The Nation contains a highbrow essay written by pro-war neocon convert Christopher Hitchens.

    Blog text (33)
  • Being a cultured person, she was raised to appreciate highbrow-type music by Mozart and Beethoven and other long-haired, highfalutin composers.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Many people consider classical music to be a form of highbrow art that requires deep understanding.

Synonyms

cultured
vshighbrow
21 5.1

A person who likes and understands art, music, and books

focuses on intellectual or cultural superiority rather than manners
highbrowed
vshighbrow
1 8.2

Someone who shows educated, serious tastes in art or books and seems a bit proud

is more neutral, indicating intellectual superiority without implied pretension

Antonyms

lowbrow
  • Offensive
6 7.2

Having simple tastes in books, films, or TV instead of serious art

Compounds

A liking for art, books, and food seen as very cultured

How Cultured

highbrow
8 8.1
cultured
21 5.1
middlebrow
  • Literature
1 8.4
uncultured
  • Offensive
3 5.6

Surface Forms

highbrow positive

Morphology

highbrow = high + brow (semi-transparent) = high + brow

The compound is a metaphorical extension from a 'high' forehead ('brow') to intellectual superiority, so the components are visible but the meaning is figurative rather than strictly literal.

Etymology

Highbrow combines high and brow ('forehead'); people once thought a high forehead showed intelligence, so calling something highbrow suggests it is intellectual or culturally serious.