Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

lowbrow

/ˈloʊbɹaʊ/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.19 in modern English

Syllables
low-brow
IPA
/ˈloʊbɹaʊ/
15
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Unsophisticated, not intended for an audience of intelligence, education or culture.

noun

Someone or something of low education or culture.

Countable

noun

An underground populist visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles area in the late 1960s, inspired by comics, punk music, graffiti, etc.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

Etymology

A bahuvrihi compound of low + brow. An Americanism whose first use appears c. 1902. Refers to the (by that time discredited) pseudoscience of phrenology, which suggested that a person of low intelligence and sophistication would possess a lower brow-line than someone of greater intelligence and sophistication.

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈloʊbɹaʊ/
  • British English: /ˈləʊbɹaʊ/

Usage

Inflected Forms

more lowbrow (comparative) most lowbrow (superlative) low-brow (alternative) lowbrows (plural)

Derived Forms

lowbrowism lowbrowness

Phrases

no-brow

Frequently Paired Words

highbrow middlebrow no-brow

Synonyms

idiot lowbrowed uncultivated philistine anti-intellectual

Antonyms

highbrow

Questions

How do you pronounce lowbrow?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈloʊbɹaʊ/.
What does lowbrow mean?
Unsophisticated, not intended for an audience of intelligence, education or culture.
Where does lowbrow come from?
A bahuvrihi compound of low + brow. An Americanism whose first use appears c. 1902. Refers to the (by that time discredited) pseudoscience of phrenology, which suggested that a person of low intelligence and sophistication would possess a lower brow-line than someone of greater intelligence and sophistication.

How to pronounce lowbrow

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “lowbrow”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈloʊbɹaʊ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “lowbrow”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “lowbrow” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.