: a heterogeneous mixture : jumble
a hodgepodge of styles
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
But the pension plan covering the retirements of a hodgepodge of workers with the city of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (nonteaching staff) and the Chicago Housing Authority, among other public bodies, is at the center of a near-comical game of hot potato between city government and CPS.
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The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 28 Feb. 2025
But this is intended to simplify messy username and password security and the hodgepodge of 2FA solutions, which still primarily means SMS with all its inherent risks.
—Zak Doffman, Forbes, 16 Dec. 2024
The hodgepodge melted into a single A.I., and the learning accelerated.
—James Somers, The New Yorker, 25 Nov. 2024
His strange swagger shows how the hodgepodge of influences that often make a terrific outfit should be honest.
—Julian Randall, Essence, 25 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Hodgepodge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hodgepodge. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.
Kids Definition
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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