: 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
Through the early 1950s, a hodgepodge of state and industry agencies controlled what happened within the 158,000 miles of airways over the country.
—
Vanessa Romo, NPR, 14 May 2025
Dave Keeling maintained this record, known as the Keeling Curve, using a running hodgepodge of short-term grants until 2005, at which point geochemist Ralph Keeling, a professor at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, coauthor of this piece and Dave’s son, assumed its stewardship.
—Eric Morgan, Wired News, 10 May 2025
The executive director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources instead was joined by a hodgepodge of U.S. Forest Service employees: a forest technician, a campgrounds manager, three seasonal hotshot firefighters.
—Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post, 2 Mar. 2025
New Coalition Against Book Bans Launches Nationwide With Support From Authors Like Judy Blume and Julia Quinn
31 of 35
The Last Bookstore
The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles is a hodgepodge of new and used books, art and kitschy vendors.
—Grace Harrington, People.com, 26 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hodgepodge
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Vanessa Romo, NPR, 14 May 2025
Dave Keeling maintained this record, known as the Keeling Curve, using a running hodgepodge of short-term grants until 2005, at which point geochemist Ralph Keeling, a professor at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, coauthor of this piece and Dave’s son, assumed its stewardship.
—Eric Morgan, Wired News, 10 May 2025
The executive director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources instead was joined by a hodgepodge of U.S. Forest Service employees: a forest technician, a campgrounds manager, three seasonal hotshot firefighters.
—Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post, 2 Mar. 2025
New Coalition Against Book Bans Launches Nationwide With Support From Authors Like Judy Blume and Julia Quinn
31 of 35
The Last Bookstore
The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles is a hodgepodge of new and used books, art and kitschy vendors.
—Grace Harrington, People.com, 26 Apr. 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 1 Jun. 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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