as in intellectual
much given to learning and thinking
finally, a TV series that appeals to a highbrow audience
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
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
-
American historiography of the Civil War would be dominated by the Confederate-friendly into the middle of the twentieth century, providing intellectual backbone for the American version of apartheid.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
5 Oct. 2025
-
Journalist/film scholar Mark Harris pops up late in the series to smooth some intellectual transitions.—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The artist needs no cerebral middleman to move the motif from the world to the page.—
Harmon Siegel,
Artforum,
1 Oct. 2025
-
If anything, their Didi and Gogo (Winter plays the former, the more cerebral and anxious of the two, and Reeves the latter, the disgruntled yet tender beta clown) are still a little on the solemn side.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
At the same time, scholarly knowledge was becoming more specialized and professionalized.—
Time,
Time,
1 Oct. 2025
-
The idea of a faculty committee empowered to vet scholarly publications for racial bias has, ineluctably, a Star Chamber vibe.—
Louis Menand,
New Yorker,
26 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Highbrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/highbrow. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share