olio
Americannoun
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olios
plural
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a dish of many ingredients.
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Informal. olla podrida.
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a mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge.
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a medley or potpourri, as of musical or literary selections; miscellany.
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Theater.
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a specialty act performed downstage while the upstage set is changed.
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a performance, as a musical number, presented between scenes or acts.
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a program of variety acts, especially the second half of a minstrel show.
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noun
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a dish of many different ingredients
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a miscellany or potpourri
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of olio
1635–45; < Spanish olla pot, stew < Latin olla, ōla pot, jar
Explanation
An olio is a hodgepodge of various things. The contents of your desk might be an olio of books and notebooks, uneaten snacks, the mini flashlight you found on the sidewalk, a golf ball, toothbrush and toothpaste, a Frisbee... An olio was originally, and still is, a Spanish or Latin American stew containing a variety of ingredients, such as sausage, perhaps other meats, tomatoes, chickpeas, and various other vegetables. The full name for this stew is olla podrida. The word olio came to be used for any collection of many kinds of different things, especially things that don't really seem to belong together or have anything in common. It can also describe a musical medley or a variety show.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s essentially something between olive oil and olio santo, except it’s a little sweeter and less spicy.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
Our preschooler was famished, so we headed to the property’s Italian restaurant, where the attentive wait staff helped us match Sula’s wines with minestrone soup, insalata mista, pizza and spaghetti aglio e olio.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2020
While my parents made sure that I hadn’t poisoned my grandmother, I went back to the kitchen and whipped up a simple spaghetti aglio e olio, which I secretly preferred to chanterelles.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019
Technically, uovo fritto con spaghetti aglio olio peperoncino, but I mean … spaghetti for breakfast is a win no matter what language.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2018
He discourses upon tiles, and gives a cement for making water-tight their junction,—"Calcina viva intrisa con olio."
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 68, June, 1863 by Various
One of my favorite aglio e olios had more coarsely ground, but just as crisp, breadcrumbs.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2022
Not dainty now, the squire in haste Fell to, and praised their savory taste; Nay, said his meal had such a gout He ne'er in tarts and olios knew.
From Aesop, in Rhyme Old Friends in a New Dress by Marmaduke Park
Gargilius, sleek, voluptuous lord, A hundred dainties smoke upon his board; Earth, air, and ocean ransack’d for the feast, In masquerade of foreign olios dress’d.
From A Poetical Cook-Book by Maria J. Moss
Words ending in io or yo add s; as, folios, nuncios, olios, ratios, embryos.
From Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking by John Hendricks Bechtel
The festivities were duly preceded with the religious ceremonies of the great holyday of St. Patrick's feast, and closed by a grand entertainment at night, which included theatricals, recitations and olios of song and sentiment.
From Donahoe's Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 4, April, 1886 Volume 15 (January 1886 - July 1886) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
