high-concept
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌhaɪˈkɒnsɛpt/
ipa: /ˌhaɪˈkɑnˌsɛpt/
Etymology: PIE word
 *ḱóm
From high (adjective) + concept (noun).
Senses: examples: text: A high concept show has something that somebody could recognize in the title and would want to see. […] Elvis Presley and pills are the highest concept you could get. There are three people who are so high concept that you can live off them – Elvis, Jackie Onassis and Liz Taylor.
ref: 1979 October 2, Joan Hanauer, quoting Paul L. Klein, “Exec sees ‘concepts’ as key to ratings battle”, in Mort Pye, editor, The Star-Ledger, volume 66, number 218, Newark, N.J.: S[amuel] I[rving] Newhouse [Sr.], →OCLC, page C [between 35 and 36], columns 2–3:
text: One might argue that Groundhog Day is a "high-concept" film. […] For many, a high-concept film is distinguished by its ease of summary. As Steven Spielberg puts it, "If a person can tell me the idea in 25 words or less, it's going to make a pretty good movie. I like ideas, especially movie ideas, that you can hold in your hand."
ref: 1999, Kristin Thompson, “Groundhog Day”, in Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 153:
text: Yet for all its casual mayhem, Free Guy turns out to be a rather cuddly crowdpleaser, a high-concept blockbuster trifle with bubblegum ice cream clogging its circuits.
ref: 2021 August 6, A. A. Dowd, “The Ryan Reynolds Action-comedy Free Guy is a Truman Show for the Fortnite Age”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2023:
topics: broadcasting
film
literature
media
publishing
television
antonyms: low-concept
glosses: Of a work such as a book, film, or television programme: based on an appealing and easily communicable idea; also, of or relating to such a work.
examples: text: I’m not too sure about that new molecular gastronomy restaurant. It seems too high-concept and snooty for me.
text: We've heard of high-concept books and high-concept plays and high-concept television shows and high-concept record albums and high-concept paintings and high-concept advertising campaigns and, of course, high-concept motion pictures. This is a high-concept magazine article. Why? Because it can be satisfactorily described in a single, simple sentence. Here it is: Ask people who work in the glamour business that invented high concept to define high concept.
ref: 1987 October, Rachel Urquhart, “Naked City: Buzzwords of the Stars”, in Spy: The New York Monthly, New York, N.Y.: Spy Publishing Partners, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28, column 2:
text: Are “Lost” and “[Desperate] Housewives” too high-concept? [article title]—ABC's hit shows are eager to avoid the Twin Peaks curse […] Forget the predictable crime procedurals. Serialized, slow-burning mysteries are back.
ref: 2004 December 13, Jennifer Armstrong, “Are ‘Lost’ and ‘Housewives’ too high-concept?”, in Entertainment Weekly, New York, N.Y.: Entertainment Weekly, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2025:
text: I don't need another movie that's too high-concept for its own good. I get it, meaningless movies are unoriginal and worthless, we care too much about the way we look to other people, and yes, it could be cool if a movie was made about a character who drew another character who directed another character who wrote the first character. Zoom just isn't quite as good as it wants to be de facto originality.
ref: 2015 October 1, Adam Charles, “Zoom is Too Ambitiously High-concept for Its Own Good”, in Film School Rejects, archived from the original on 25 May 2024:
text: The director, Christopher Nolan, favours complicated high-concept plots. His Inception (2010) is about dreams; Memento (2000) plays about with chronology.
ref: 2020 September 4, Andrew Martin, “Why Christopher Nolan Needs to Calm Down”, in UnHerd, London, archived from the original on 24 Mar 2025:
glosses: Based on an idea or theme, especially one regarded as highly artistic or intellectual.
Related terms: english: attested slightly later than the adjective
translation: attested slightly later than the adjective
word: high concept