mishmash
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of mishmash
1425–75; late Middle English; gradational formation based on mash 1
Explanation
A mishmash is a random bunch of odds and ends. Many people have a mishmash of things in their basement or garage. A pile of old keys, one sock, four paper clips, and a water bottle? Total mishmash. Many houses have one kitchen drawer full of a mishmash of pens, rubber bands, carryout menus, and gum, for example. If you write a last-minute research paper, you might wind up with a mishmash of random ideas and opinions. The word was originally spelled with a hyphen, mish-mash, and before that it was mysse-masche, which had to do with mash, as in a bunch of soft food chucked together and fed to pigs. Another word for mishmash is hodgepodge.
Vocabulary lists containing mishmash
Stargirl
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"Mireya Mayor: Explorer/Correspondent"
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Wink
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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.
That long-ago mishmash of horses, poets and peacemakers seems quaint today.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026
This was a mishmash of ideas with no clear identification marks.
From BBC • Feb. 11, 2026
And on Thursday, he raised the possibility of a mixed Supreme Court decision resulting in “some kind of a mishmash of, ‘you can do this, you can’t do that.’”
From MarketWatch • Jan. 8, 2026
On this record, the singer turned away from her R&B roots to create a mishmash compilation of rock-infused tracks.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025
Today, when seeds are transported over the whole globe by ship and plane, we take it for granted that our meals are a geographic mishmash.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
