Word.ws English Dictionary

potpourri

UK/ˌpəʊ.pəˈɹiː//ˌpoʊ.pʊˈɹiː/

potpourri noun: a mixture of dried fragrant plant material, often in a decorative bowl, used to scent a room.

potpourri: Dried orange and purple roses with pink and white filler flowers
Photo by Zhaoli JIN on Unsplash

Noun

potpourri (countable and uncountable, plural potpourris)

  1. A mixture of dried fragrant plant material, often in a decorative bowl, used to scent a room.
  2. A medley of songs or music.
  3. A ragout or stew of meat and vegetables.
  4. (figuratively) A collection of various things; an assortment, mixed bag or motley.
    • A convention of sorts, the evening was an exciting potpourri of education, entertainment and political consciousness.1977 December 24, Richard Burns, “It Was a 'Big Splash' at The Aquarium”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 25, page 9
  5. An anthology of miscellaneous prose.

potpourri meaning in Tamil

potpourri in Tamil

கலவை, கூட்டு

Forms of potpourri

pluralpotpourris
alternative formpot pourri
alternative formpot-pourri

Origin of potpourri

From French pot-pourri (“stew, potpourri”), a calque of Spanish olla podrida (“stew”, literally “rotten pot”). Doublet of olla podrida.

Questions about potpourri

What does potpourri mean?
Potpourri means a mixture of dried fragrant plant material, often in a decorative bowl, used to scent a room.
What is potpourri in Tamil?
Potpourri in Tamil is கலவை, கூட்டு. See Potpourri meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is potpourri?
Potpourri is a noun.
How do you pronounce potpourri?
Potpourri is pronounced /ˌpəʊ.pəˈɹiː/ (UK).
What is the plural of potpourri?
The plural of potpourri is potpourris.

Words near potpourri in the dictionary

  1. Pototan
  2. potpie
  3. potpies
  4. potplant
  5. potplants
  6. potpourri
  7. potpourris
  8. potrack
  9. potracked
  10. potracking
  11. potracks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: potpourri (page history and authors); potpourri (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-potpourri.oga.

Cite this entry: “potpourri.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/potpourri. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.