: 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
This pursuit could even lead to applications in a hodgepodge of fields such as metal smelting, food preservation, and biopharmaceuticals.
—
Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 20 June 2025
Think Grandma's living room is just as hodgepodge of decorative accents, furnishings, and art pieces that don't hold up today?
—Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 27 May 2025
Trump has implored Republicans, who have the majority in Congress, to deliver on his top domestic priority, but the details of the package, with its hodgepodge of priorities, is drawing deeper scrutiny.
—Arkansas Online, 25 Mar. 2025
By then, a few other newsroom employees had returned to perform a hodgepodge of office tasks, including the practice of maintaining back copies of published newspapers.
—Terence McGinley, New York Times, 23 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hodgepodge
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Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 20 June 2025
Think Grandma's living room is just as hodgepodge of decorative accents, furnishings, and art pieces that don't hold up today?
—Sarah Lyon, Southern Living, 27 May 2025
Trump has implored Republicans, who have the majority in Congress, to deliver on his top domestic priority, but the details of the package, with its hodgepodge of priorities, is drawing deeper scrutiny.
—Arkansas Online, 25 Mar. 2025
By then, a few other newsroom employees had returned to perform a hodgepodge of office tasks, including the practice of maintaining back copies of published newspapers.
—Terence McGinley, New York Times, 23 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hodgepodge
Cite this Entry
“Hodgepodge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hodgepodge. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
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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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