: 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
While still relying on his memories and detailed sketches, Post’s 1666 painting is a hodgepodge of different scenes arranged together on one canvas.
—
Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2025
The newest entry, while not entirely lacking in charm, is toothless corporate hodgepodge.
—Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 28 May 2025
Acoustic Sounds occupies a hodgepodge of squat industrial buildings in Salina, a city of about 50,000 near the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states, where grain elevators and a gigantic frozen pizza plant jut out from the flat plains landscape.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 7 Mar. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for hodgepodge
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Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2025
The newest entry, while not entirely lacking in charm, is toothless corporate hodgepodge.
—Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 28 May 2025
Acoustic Sounds occupies a hodgepodge of squat industrial buildings in Salina, a city of about 50,000 near the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states, where grain elevators and a gigantic frozen pizza plant jut out from the flat plains landscape.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 7 Mar. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for hodgepodge
Cite this Entry
“Hodgepodge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hodgepodge. Accessed 15 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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