: a heterogeneous mixture : jumble
a hodgepodge of styles
Synonyms
- agglomerate
- agglomeration
- alphabet soup
- assortment
- botch
- clutter
- collage
- crazy quilt
- farrago
- gallimaufry
- grab bag
- gumbo
- hash
- hotchpotch
- jambalaya
- jumble
- jungle
- litter
- macédoine
- medley
- mélange
- menagerie
- miscellanea
- miscellany
- mishmash
- mixed bag
- montage
- motley
- muddle
- olio
- olla podrida
- omnium-gatherum
- pastiche
- patchwork
- patchwork quilt
- potpourri
- ragbag
- ragout
- rummage
- salad
- salmagundi
- scramble
- shuffle
- smorgasbord
- stew
- tumble
- variety
- welter
Examples of hodgepodge in a Sentence
the exhibit was a hodgepodge of mediocre art, bad art, and really bad art
Recent Examples on the Web
This doesn’t make the unpredictable stylistic hodgepodge of this album go down any easier for hip-hop heads who grew up loving Hill’s The Warriors but not musical theater, and who will receive much of this as nuclear-grade cringe.
—
Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2024
The showroom and its tire-kicking lot now sit mostly unseen from the freeway, tucked among low-rise retail centers, apartments and a hodgepodge of fast food.
—Pat Maio, Orange County Register, 8 Oct. 2024
All of this doesn’t represent merely a hodgepodge of actions.
—Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
For almost all groups, reaching consumers now involves a hodgepodge of channels and no single mode dominates.
—Richard Kestenbaum, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for hodgepodge 
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Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2024
The showroom and its tire-kicking lot now sit mostly unseen from the freeway, tucked among low-rise retail centers, apartments and a hodgepodge of fast food.
—Pat Maio, Orange County Register, 8 Oct. 2024
All of this doesn’t represent merely a hodgepodge of actions.
—Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
For almost all groups, reaching consumers now involves a hodgepodge of channels and no single mode dominates.
—Richard Kestenbaum, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for hodgepodge
Articles Related to hodgepodge
Dictionary Entries Near hodgepodge
Cite this Entry
“Hodgepodge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hodgepodge. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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Etymology
an altered form of hotchpotch, from Middle English hochepot "mixed stew," derived from early French hochepot (same meaning), from hochier "to shake" and pot "pot, container"
Word Origin
Hodgepodge and its older form hotchpotch are part of a group of words that rhyme all by themselves. Hobnob and willy-nilly are others. In the case of hodgepodge and hotchpotch, the rhyme is not an accident. These words came to English from early French in the form hochepot. The spelling was changed to make the second half of the word rhyme with the first. In French hochepot was a stew of many foods cooked together in a pot. Perhaps the pot was shaken instead of stirred since hochepot was formed from hochier, meaning "to shake," and pot, which had the same meaning in early French as it does in English now. Before long hotchpotch and hodgepodge were used not just for a mixture of foods cooking in a pot but for any mixture of different things.
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