as in vulgar
lacking in refinement or good taste
at office gatherings his lowbrow humor often embarrassed his coworkers
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in philistine
a person who is chiefly interested in material comfort and is hostile or indifferent to art and culture
the town's lowbrows think that the school's music program is a complete waste of taxpayers' money
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of lowbrow
Edward Keegan, Chicago Tribune, 11 Jan. 2026
In that era, The New Yorker occupied a weirdly contradictory place in the new American nexus of highbrow and lowbrow, tradition and counterculture.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 1 Dec. 2025
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025
Perna looks to respect their time with real analysis tucked between the same lowbrow gags that won their attention in the first place.
—Nick Coltrain, Denver Post, 30 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for lowbrow
Adjective
His work embodies highbrow and lowbrow materials through a time in the 20th century when architecture was trending hard toward highbrow minimalism.
—Edward Keegan, Chicago Tribune, 11 Jan. 2026
In that era, The New Yorker occupied a weirdly contradictory place in the new American nexus of highbrow and lowbrow, tradition and counterculture.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 1 Dec. 2025
Noun
That balance of high- and lowbrow is absent in The Abandons.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025
Perna looks to respect their time with real analysis tucked between the same lowbrow gags that won their attention in the first place.
—Nick Coltrain, Denver Post, 30 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for lowbrow
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lowbrow
Adjective
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Doncic claimed Bitadze directed a vulgar comment about Doncic’s family in Serbian toward the Lakers star guard.—
Broderick Turner,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Mar. 2026
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Tensions rose, neighbors said, to the point that King was heard at times swearing at Kirsten Wells as well as others using vulgar epithets.—
Laura Bauer,
Kansas City Star,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The beloved slapstick comedy is 85 minutes of pure entertainment, full of increasingly chaotic adventures and shockingly crass jokes that still produce guffaws decades later.—
Rachel Simon,
Vulture,
6 Mar. 2026
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In a not crass way, no matter what your vice of choice is, someone who enables that behavior, even just by being there, is a really relatable idea.—
Nicole Fell,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Politically incorrect and in-your-face, with plenty of dark humor accentuating the drama, the show resembles the more cutting-edge TV — think Borgen or Rita — made by Sweden’s ruder neighbor Denmark.—
Scott Roxborough,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Mar. 2026
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Etiquette neither knows nor cares who is generous and who is stingy, and indecisive and rude are not opposites.—
Judith Martin,
Sun Sentinel,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The year was 1754, and Franklin's goal was to unite the disparate colonies into a coalition against a common enemy.—
Phaedra Trethan,
USA Today,
28 Mar. 2026
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Sei whales are endangered and are common in the Southeast's waters.—
Alexa Herrera,
CBS News,
28 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Three years have passed since the stadium-sized clown show of the duo’s last record, 10,000 gecs, and Brady’s been feverishly cooking up unlikely collaborations and solo material.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
27 Mar. 2026
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Christopher Kosakowski, United States, 2025 A circus clown celebrating his birthday alone receives a mysterious gift box harboring an antique zoetrope that spins his world into mayhem.—
William Earl,
Variety,
25 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The use of childish internet and video-game memes to describe violence is coarse and unworthy of the men and women who go in harm’s way.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
1 Apr. 2026
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My dense, coarser hair holds onto humidity like a sponge.—
Conçetta Ciarlo,
Vogue,
1 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Today, Amy’s Kitchen generates approximately $1 billion in retail sales (translating to roughly $600 million in gross sales) and employs nearly 2,000 people across three culinary facilities.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
29 Mar. 2026
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Greenwich Entertainment comedy Fantasy Life, the first feature from Matthew Shear, opened at the Angelika Film Center in NYC for a solid weekend gross of $39k.—
Jill Goldsmith,
Deadline,
29 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Lowbrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lowbrow. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
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