highbrow

American  

[hahy-brou] / ˈhaɪˌbraʊ /

noun

1. a person of superior intellectual interests and tastes.

2. a person with intellectual or cultural pretensions; intellectual snob.

3. the crestfish.

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adjective

1. Also highbrowed of, relating to, or characteristic of a highbrow.

   Synonyms:

   pseudointellectual, snobbish, bookish, cultured, scholarly, intellectual

highbrow British  

/ ˈhaɪˌbraʊ /

noun

1. a person of scholarly and erudite tastes

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adjective

1. appealing to highbrows

   highbrow literature

Other Word Forms

• highbrowism noun

Etymology

Origin of highbrow

First recorded in 1895–1900; high + brow

Example Sentences

First with the Cambridge Footlights and later with the Pythons, Idle honed a linguistically-focused style that bridged highbrow absurdity and accessible, pop culture-driven humor.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026

In 1974, he founded his own firm specializing in entertainment law, a niche many highbrow Wall Street lawyers dismissed as frivolous at the time.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 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

But just because something looks and feels like a highbrow, more considerate true crime offering doesn’t mean that it can’t be undone by the genre’s same trappings.

From Salon • Oct. 21, 2025

And Volpe’s tastes, in fact, are not uniformly highbrow.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

Related Words

• cerebral
• scholarly