What does hotchpot mean?
A hotchpot is a confused mixture of unrelated or disparate elements, such as objects, ideas, people, or pieces of information. The expression often implies that the ingredients have been thrown together without much order, planning, or harmony, making it useful when describing anything from a cluttered collection to an intellectually untidy account. Its modern figurative sense developed from an older culinary meaning: a stew containing several kinds of meat and vegetables. That earlier sense is now obsolete, although the word remains familiar in British English. Hotchpotch is also used as a variant spelling. In everyday use, "hodgepodge" is more common, while "hotchpot" has a somewhat traditional, distinctive tone that makes it especially effective in literary or descriptive writing.
nounAn untidy mixture of assorted people, things, or ideas. The word formerly also referred to a stew made with various kinds of meat and vegetables.
- An untidy or miscellaneous collection of people, things, or ideas.
- An obsolete or archaic stew made from a mixture of meat and vegetables.
"The exhibition was a hotchpot of photographs, handwritten letters, and eccentric household objects."
"The report presented a hotchpot of statistics, anecdotes, and speculation."
"In the eighteenth century, a hotchpot was a rich stew containing several kinds of meat and vegetables."
The regular plural is rarely needed because the word is uncommon in modern usage.
"The archives contain several hotchpotches of unfinished notes and correspondence."
Once a bubbling stew of assorted ingredients, a hotchpot now describes the opposite of neatness: a jumble in which everything has ended up together.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hotchpot come from?
The word entered English from French hochepot, denoting a stew made from assorted ingredients. Its precise internal French etymology is uncertain, but the culinary sense is well established in early modern English; the later figurative use developed from the idea of different things being combined in one mixture.
Related word forms
How hotchpot is actually used
In modern usage the word is relatively uncommon and sounds more traditional or informal in British English. Its older culinary sense is obsolete; the word "hodgepodge" is now much more widely used.
Easily confused with hotchpot
A hotpot is a stew or casserole, whereas a hotchpot now usually means an untidy mixture; the longer word is not simply another name for a traditional hotpot dish.