middlebrow
adjective, noun
middlebrow is spelled M-I-D-D-L-E-B-R-O-W: 10 letters. It appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a derogatory adjective, middlebrow means “Neither highbrow or lowbrow, but somewhere in between” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in middlebrow?
| Letters | 10: M-I-D-D-L-E-B-R-O-W |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 16 million words; the 121,279th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is middlebrow?
Middlebrow appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of middlebrow
- middle-brow
- middle brow
- middlebrows plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does middlebrow mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
derogatoryNeither highbrow or lowbrow, but somewhere in between.
noun
- 1
A person or thing that is neither highbrow nor lowbrow, but in between.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Middlebrow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | mittelmäßig, mäßig , Durchschnittsmensch |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does middlebrow come from?
From middle + brow, by analogy with highbrow and lowbrow. The term first appeared in Punch (1925) and was later used by Virginia Woolf (1930s) in an unsent letter to the New Statesman, published as a chapter in the book The Death of a Moth and Other Essays (1942).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).