English Explanatory Dictionary

highbrow

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Intellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated.
noun
  1. A cultured or learned person or thing.

Word forms

highbrow highbrows

Etymology

A compound of the words high + brow, first recorded usage in 1875. Referring to the (by that time discredited) science of phrenology, which suggested that a person of intelligence and sophistication would possess a higher brow-line than someone of lesser intelligence and sophistication.

Synonyms

intellectual scholar

Antonyms

lowbrow

Derived words

highbrowism highbrowness
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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