highbrow
noun
high·brow
ˈhī-ˌbrau̇ 
: a person who possesses or has pretensions to superior learning or culture
Synonyms
Examples of highbrow in a Sentence
guests at her elegant dinner parties are a mix of the city's highbrows and captains of industry
Recent Examples on the Web
Richie Grainge herself has evolved her stylistic approach from an ostentatious Los Angeleno verve into a look that’s more low-key highbrow.
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Nick Remsen, CNN, 13 Feb. 2024
No word better sums up our quixotic hopes for the visual, uniting the lowbrow (video-game headsets, van Gogh warehouses), the highbrow (Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms, James Turrell’s light installations), and the middlebrow (Alfonso Cuarón’s Steadicam jaunts, James Cameron’s 3-D extravaganzas).
—Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
The roll call of films ranges from the highbrow to the decidedly grungy, the menu of a true movie fanatic.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2023
Just dumb enough to work, the haunted-house plot barrels through clichés and comes out the other side with an earnestly lowbrow evisceration of the fake highbrow.
—Charles Bramesco, Vulture, 16 July 2021
See all Example Sentences for highbrow 
Nick Remsen, CNN, 13 Feb. 2024
No word better sums up our quixotic hopes for the visual, uniting the lowbrow (video-game headsets, van Gogh warehouses), the highbrow (Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms, James Turrell’s light installations), and the middlebrow (Alfonso Cuarón’s Steadicam jaunts, James Cameron’s 3-D extravaganzas).
—Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
The roll call of films ranges from the highbrow to the decidedly grungy, the menu of a true movie fanatic.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2023
Just dumb enough to work, the haunted-house plot barrels through clichés and comes out the other side with an earnestly lowbrow evisceration of the fake highbrow.
—Charles Bramesco, Vulture, 16 July 2021
See all Example Sentences for highbrow
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'highbrow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Highbrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/highbrow. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
highbrow
noun
high·brow
-ˌbrau̇
: a person who has or pretends to have more learning or culture than others : intellectual
highbrow
adjective
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