hodgepodge
Americannoun
noun
-
a jumbled mixture
-
a thick soup or stew made from meat and vegetables
Etymology
Origin of hodgepodge
First recorded in 1615–25; variant of hotchpotch
Explanation
A hodgepodge is a random assortment of things. A dorm room might be furnished with a hodgepodge of milk crates, antique mirrors, and a poster of a kitten hanging on a branch with one paw. Hodgepodge is a funny-sounding word for a somewhat funny occurrence — a grouping of things or people that don't fit together. If you made a stew with bacon, oatmeal, and chocolate cake, you’ve made a hodgepodge (and a bellyache waiting to happen). The piles of stuff stacked in attics tend to be a hodgepodge. British people call it a hotchpotch. A hodgepodge can also be called a mishmash.
Vocabulary lists containing hodgepodge
The Diary of a Young Girl
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"Perfectly Cromulent": Another Simpsons Vocabulary List
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Towers Falling
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What follows is a sometimes frustrating, often hilarious hodgepodge of observations about the innate folly of living in a world where treating employees with basic respect is seen as optional.
From Salon • May 22, 2026
Libor Svoboda, a historian at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, called the law a "hodgepodge" in its current shape but admitted it had fulfilled its task in the past.
From Barron's • Feb. 20, 2026
As we finished up our mid-afternoon meal — a hodgepodge of spicy tuna bites and asparagus fries paired with guava and berry mocktails — McCurdy reflected on the agency she is finally able to take.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 19, 2026
So the book is something of a hodgepodge, which—if you haven’t read anything about the history of Chinese-Mongol relations before—should be both interesting and illuminating.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
Others considered it a gigantic hodgepodge of the great and the mediocre.
From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
