middlebrow

noun

mid·​dle·​brow ˈmi-dᵊl-ˌbrau̇ 

: a person who is moderately but not highly cultivated

middlebrow adjective

Examples of middlebrow in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

No word better sums up our quixotic hopes for the visual, uniting the lowbrow (video-game headsets, van Gogh warehouses), the highbrow (Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms, James Turrell’s light installations), and the middlebrow (Alfonso Cuarón’s Steadicam jaunts, James Cameron’s 3-D extravaganzas). —Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023

Her parents ran in avant-garde circles in Prague but resigned themselves to life in the middlebrow, middle-class community of Czech emigres in mid-century Manhattan. —Sebastian Stockman, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2023

Though some critics disdained Mr. Cahill’s books as middlebrow, many others, including eminent scholars, praised his gift for bringing arcane topics to life. —Clay Risen, New York Times, 30 Oct. 2022

This is true even for TV critics, who generally complain that the Television Academy, which votes on the awards, tends to reward the same (middlebrow) fare year after year. —Inkoo Kang, Washington Post, 12 July 2022

Neil Simon — probably the most commercially successful playwright ever to walk the Earth — has fallen way out of style, written off as the quintessential mid-century middlebrow. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2021

Whether middlebrow or low, these works reshape Diana to their own needs, borrowing her familiar, eventful yet unknowable story to sell mere gossip as relatable real-life tragedy. —New York Times, 17 Nov. 2021

But the case for the Emmys as a collective showcase of the industry’s middlebrow finest is an easy one to make — at least for the medium’s sake. —Washington Post, 17 Sep. 2021

For years, public derision has followed each instance of white middlebrow acts triumphing over culture-defining Black art at the Grammys. —Andrew R. Chow, Time, 10 Mar. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for middlebrow

• anyhow
• carabao
• disallow
• disavow
• allow
• avow
• basedow
• chiao
• endow
• eyebrow
• highbrow
• lanao

Kids Definition

middlebrow

noun

mid·​dle·​brow ˈmid-ᵊl-ˌbrau̇ 

: a person who is moderately but not highly educated and refined

middlebrow adjective