middlebrow
noun
mid·dle·brow ˈmi-dᵊl-ˌbrau̇ 
: a person who is moderately but not highly cultivated
middlebrow adjective
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web 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 Cultural critics slammed it as a middlebrow hobby that dumbed down the process of making art. Michelle Brunner, Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2020 While other authors have covered the subject of the German exiles, including Thomas Mann’s American years, we are concerned here with the intersection of culture (or, in the German sense, Kultur) and American middlebrow. Elizabeth Powers, National Review, 5 Dec. 2019 Donald Trump has created a political aesthetic of the middlebrow. Constance Grady, Vox, 27 Dec. 2018 See More
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 Cultural critics slammed it as a middlebrow hobby that dumbed down the process of making art. Michelle Brunner, Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2020 While other authors have covered the subject of the German exiles, including Thomas Mann’s American years, we are concerned here with the intersection of culture (or, in the German sense, Kultur) and American middlebrow. Elizabeth Powers, National Review, 5 Dec. 2019 Donald Trump has created a political aesthetic of the middlebrow. Constance Grady, Vox, 27 Dec. 2018 See More Word History
First Known Use
1922, in the meaning defined above