hodgepodge
Americannoun
noun
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a jumbled mixture
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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
“View Finding” is not an indiscriminate hodgepodge, but a small demonstration of proliferating photographic techniques, the applications to which they can be put, and the Walther Collection’s engagement with this efflorescence.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 5, 2026
This can result in a hodgepodge of different terms and references that can lead heirs to contest the validity of a trust or will.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 6, 2025
The challenge in both constructing and interpreting the hodgepodge of post-shutdown data is also being complicated by uncertainty over the next Fed Chair.
From Barron's • Dec. 5, 2025
I stare down at the hodgepodge of beads.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
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.
