as in intellectual
much given to learning and thinking
finally, a TV series that appeals to a highbrow audience
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in nerd
a person with strong intellectual interests
guests at her elegant dinner parties are a mix of the city's highbrows and captains of industry
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of highbrow
Travis Bean, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
And well before Telluride co-founder Tom Luddy’s death in 2023, Huntsinger has been flying solo and booking a strong lineup of highbrow awards contenders, classics, and idiosyncratic discoveries.
—Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 28 Aug. 2025
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 22 Sep. 2023
Tár is its highbrow counterpart, teasing and celebrating the same personal crisis and class issues.
—Armond White, National Review, 27 Jan. 2023
See All Example Sentences for highbrow
Adjective
That combination of highbrow admiration and crowd-pleasing shocks is a treasured feat in horror.
—Travis Bean, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
And well before Telluride co-founder Tom Luddy’s death in 2023, Huntsinger has been flying solo and booking a strong lineup of highbrow awards contenders, classics, and idiosyncratic discoveries.
—Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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
Tár is its highbrow counterpart, teasing and celebrating the same personal crisis and class issues.
—Armond White, National Review, 27 Jan. 2023
See All Example Sentences for highbrow
Recent Examples of Synonyms for highbrow
Adjective
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For menswear, the brand cited photographer Peter Beard as inspiration, channeling an intellectual-meets-bohemian aesthetic.—
Rhonda Richford,
Footwear News,
10 Oct. 2025
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The combination of pure intellectual inquiries and engineering advancement has been shaping this interdisciplinary field since its creation.—
Zhixin Wang,
The Conversation,
10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The challenge is to become as skilled and cerebral as possible, preferably while the elite athleticism is still present.—
Tony Jones,
New York Times,
9 Oct. 2025
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The artist needs no cerebral middleman to move the motif from the world to the page.—
Harmon Siegel,
Artforum,
1 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Rarely does a 29-page scholarly paper merit the attention of top-level executives, but every business leader should be familiar with a recent study from OpenAI.—
Geoff Colvin,
Fortune,
10 Oct. 2025
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Every book that has been written about Washington’s administration since—whether scholarly or popular, whether great-man or women’s history, or Vaill’s marvelous fusion of both—owes a debt to Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.—
Jane Kamensky,
The Atlantic,
10 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Highbrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/highbrow. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
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