hodgepodge
Americannoun
-
hodgepodges
plural
noun
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a jumbled mixture
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a thick soup or stew made from meat and vegetables
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Many of the projects are complex, multi-year efforts that involve a hodgepodge of agencies, experts and partnerships, such as ARCHES, the state’s billion-dollar hydrogen hub awarded under President Biden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
He boasts of achieving a seventh-degree black belt in Keichu-do karate, a Cajun hodgepodge martial art developed by his biological father, Karl.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
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
Airlines decide for themselves whether it is safe to fly, an assessment typically based on a hodgepodge of government intelligence, regulatory advice and private-security consultants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026
Paolo had a Filipina mom and a white hodgepodge American dad.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
His shows were hodgepodges of muchness — jewelry and eyeglasses and bags and clothes — that celebrated character over chic.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
They face states, counties and cities with shifting and often senseless hodgepodges of guidelines and restrictions, or, sometimes, no rules at all.
From New York Times ● Feb. 19, 2021
I continue to receive these nonsensical hodgepodges of random numbers & letters.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2016
In particular, operas known as pasticcios staged in the 17th and 18th centuries were freewheeling hodgepodges, offering fast-paced spectacles of music by several composers, with plot, action and libretto altered at whim.
From New York Times ● Oct. 25, 2010
Indian companies were formerly privately owned hodgepodges put together, without economic rhyme or reason, over the years.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
