Omnium-gatherum
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A collection containing a variety of miscellaneous things.
"But out of the water he dared not put his head; for the rain came down by bucketsful, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, and churned it into foam; and soon the stream rose, and rushed down, higher and higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks; and straws, and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, and leeches, and odds and ends, and omnium-gatherums, and this, that, and the other, enough to fill nine museums."
- 2 a motley assortment of things wordnet
Example
More examples"But out of the water he dared not put his head; for the rain came down by bucketsful, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, and churned it into foam; and soon the stream rose, and rushed down, higher and higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks; and straws, and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, and leeches, and odds and ends, and omnium-gatherums, and this, that, and the other, enough to fill nine museums."
Etymology
Dog Latin, from Latin omnium (“of all”) and gather + -um, suggesting a collection of everything.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.