Meaning & use
lowbrow
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Meanings
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Aimed at ordinary, popular tastes and not requiring much education, thought or cultural sophistication.
Grammar: Comes before a noun or after 'be': lowbrow humor; the show is lowbrow.
Patterns
- lowbrow entertainment
- lowbrow humor
Critics dismissed the sitcom as lowbrow, yet millions of people watched it every week.
He loves lowbrow comedy and happily watches slapstick films on weekends.
The magazine mixes serious essays with some cheerfully lowbrow gossip.
nouncountabledisapproving
A person whose interests and tastes are simple and not intellectual.
Grammar: Countable and slightly teasing: a self-confessed lowbrow.
Patterns
- a lowbrow
My sister calls herself a lowbrow because she prefers reality shows to opera.
The professor, an unashamed lowbrow, kept a shelf of comic books in his office.
Snobs sometimes treat every lowbrow as someone who cannot appreciate real art.
Word forms
| plural | lowbrows |
|---|
Common combinations
- lowbrow humor
- The film relies on lowbrow humor, including plenty of pratfalls.
- lowbrow entertainment
- Reality television is often written off as lowbrow entertainment.
- lowbrow taste
- He apologized for his lowbrow taste in music.
- lowbrow culture
- Historians now study lowbrow culture as seriously as any other.
- lowbrow comedy
- Her lowbrow comedy had the whole theater roaring.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unsophisticated
- It is a broader and neutral word for anything simple or lacking polish, while 'lowbrow' is specifically about culture and taste.
- vulgar
- It suggests crude or offensive content, so it is harsher than 'lowbrow', which just means not intellectual.
- popular
- It simply says many people like something, without the judgment about quality that 'lowbrow' usually carries.
- unrefined
- It describes manners or products lacking polish, and it is less tied to arts and entertainment.
Opposites
Word family
- highbrow adjective
- aimed at educated people with serious tastes
- middlebrow adjective
- neither very serious nor very simple in cultural taste
- brow noun
- the forehead, from which the idea of 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' comes
Practice
A critic says a movie is 'lowbrow'. What does she most likely mean?
Choose one answer.
'Lowbrow' means aimed at ordinary popular tastes without intellectual ambition. The first and last options describe the opposite, which is 'highbrow'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lowbrow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.