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• mélange
  mélange

  noun

  a mixture; medley.
• melange
  melange

  noun

  a mixture; confusion

mélange

American  

[mey-lahnzh, -lahnj] / meɪˈlɑ̃ʒ, -ˈlɑndʒ /

noun

mélanges plural

1. a mixture; medley.

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melange British  

/ meɪˈlɑːnʒ /

noun

1. a mixture; confusion

2. geology a totally disordered mixture of rocks of different shapes, sizes, ages, and origins

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mélange Scientific  

/ mā-länzh′ /

1. A metamorphic rock formation created from materials scraped off the top of a downward moving tectonic plate in a subduction zone. Mélanges occur where plates of oceanic crust subduct beneath plates of continental crust, as along the western coast of South America. They consist of intensely deformed marine sediments and ocean-floor basalts and are characterized by the lack of regular strata, the inclusion of fragments and blocks of various rock types, and the presence of minerals that form only under high pressure and low temperature conditions.

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Usage

What does mélange mean? A mélange is a mixture or medley, especially of a wide range or variety of items. It is sometimes spelled without the accent mark, as melange. In geology, it is used in a more specific way to refer to a disordered mixture of rocks of different shapes, sizes, ages, and origins. Such a mixture occurs due to the movement of tectonic plates. Another specific use of mélange refers to a type of fabric made with different colored threads. Example: The documentary is a mélange of video clips, still photos, interviews, and animated sequences.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mélanges
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mélange

1645–55; < French; Old French meslance, equivalent to mesl ( er ) to mix ( see meddle) + -ance noun suffix ≪ Germanic -ingō -ing ¹

Explanation

Why call it a mixture when it can be a melange? A tricolor vegetable melange makes even carrots, peas, and corn sound like gourmet cuisine. A melange is any combination of anything, but the word always heightens the glamour quotient. The French have a way of making simple words sound like romantic entreaties of love. Call any random assortment of things a melange, or as it's sometimes spelled, mélange, and voila, you've given it a sparkle that plain old words like combination, mixture, and blend just cannot convey. This word — along with a melange of other attributes, like great bread and pastries, delicious wine, and fine fashion — are all reasons why we love the French. All that accordion music? Not so much.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mélange melange mélanges

Business leaders and politicians gathered in Zug one May evening to debate the referendum at a polished event space perched above the city, a manicured mélange of medieval buildings and glass-and-steel high-rises.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

For Lepore, the Constitution is a blueprint of a cathedral, one that has morphed since its inception, rather like New York’s unfinished St. John the Divine with its mélange of architectural styles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2025

Rising temperatures, shifting precipitation, and emerging diseases are among the mélange of climate impacts changing what's grown in breadbaskets around the world.

From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2025

The production is conceived, directed and choreographed by Kate Prince in a mélange of hip-hop and contemporary styles, and the dancers in her company, ZooNation, are technically amazing and totally committed.

From New York Times ● May 2, 2024

The scene at the outdoor chess tables in Washington Square Park was a mélange of urban vitality and color.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

But, Melendez-Badillo says, he's also a colonial subject -- a reality explored on "Debi Tirar Mas Fotos," which features an ingenious melange of traditional sounds including salsa, bomba and plena, with infusions of reggaeton.

From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026

Aside from that, however, the inciting image — and the particular melange of styles, genres and experiments that will come into play — are to be determined.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2024

The sprawling festival, which features hundreds of acts and a colourful, unending melange of art, has long advocated sustainability and was once home to one of the UK's largest private solar power plants.

From Reuters ● Jun. 24, 2023

Extra points if you cap this luscious melange with grated gruyere and parm then stick it under the broiler for a few minutes before serving it with torn pieces of baguette for lunch.

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2023

Their eyes met, and what she saw in the bilious melange of green and orange was not shock, or guilt, but a form of challenge, or even triumph.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

There were salads, grain bowls, and hummus-based mélanges of varying quality—occasionally delightful but usually somewhere between pretty good and meh.

From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2020

His Combines—kitchen-sink mélanges of painting, sculpture, collage, and assemblage, including “Monogram”—absorbed that movement’s aesthetic breakthroughs, in dispersed composition and eloquent paint-handling, while subverting its frequently macho pathos.

From The New Yorker ● May 22, 2017

“Lavender Ghost,” with its jagged shape and surface, is a good example of the elegant, fragmentlike mélanges that result.

From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2013

The 35 paintings and related gouaches at the Grey are amazingly weird metaphorical mélanges — rich with seductive painterly touches — that don’t mince images.

From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2012

Here lay an ovenful of the latest ethics—there a kettle of duodecimo mélanges.

From Devil Stories An Anthology by Various

Related Words

• hodgepodge
• jumble
• medley
• miscellany