adj
highbrow
adj
1
Appealing to sophisticated or intellectual tastes.
"The festival mixed highbrow art films with mainstream comedies."
noun
1
A person with refined, intellectual tastes.
"Critics dismissed the play as entertainment for highbrows."
How to Use Highbrow
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishSophisticated, intellectual, or "arty" — often used slightly mockingly, contrasted with "lowbrow."
Easily confused with
lowbrow
middlebrow
Common pairings
highbrow culture
highbrow taste
too highbrow
Word Forms
highbrows plural
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The festival mixed _____ art films with mainstream comedies.
Etymology
Coined in the 1870s from high + brow, drawing on the now-discredited pseudoscience of phrenology, which claimed that a taller forehead signalled greater intelligence.