highbrow
Americannoun
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a person of superior intellectual interests and tastes.
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a person with intellectual or cultural pretensions; intellectual snob.
-
the crestfish.
adjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of highbrow
Explanation
Someone highbrow is highly cultured and sophisticated. You can call such a person a highbrow. Certain types of art are considered sophisticated, cultured, and respectable: like opera and classical music. Anything highbrow is usually intellectual in nature, and people who appreciate such things are also called highbrows. Highbrows usually have money and are sometimes considered snobby or hoity-toity. The opposite of highbrow is lowbrow, which refers to vulgar and less sophisticated culture and people. A book by a professor would probably be highbrow, while a book by a reality TV star is probably lowbrow.
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.
If you think this question skews highbrow, think again.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 19, 2026
So if “Ulysses” is what you want to be reading, then great, but don’t think that some kind of highbrow art is going to be the best for you.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
“I mean, what is the purpose that they serve, other than speaking to other completely disconnected supposedly highbrow people that live in congested urban areas?”
From Salon • Mar. 23, 2026
He reaped great commercial rewards with cutting-edge highbrow material—yet sometimes felt his audience couldn’t keep up.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 29, 2025
And Volpe’s tastes, in fact, are not uniformly highbrow.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
