Dictionary

smorgasbord en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈsmɜːɡəʊs(ˌ)bʊəd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈsmɔɹɡəsˌbɔɹd/ (General-American)
• /ˈsmɔːɡəs(ˌ)bɔːd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈsmɔːɡæs(ˌ)bɔːd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈʃmɔɹ-/ (General-American)
• /ˈsmɜːɡəs(ˌ)bɔːd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Received-Pronunciation) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Swedish smörgåsbord (“buffet with many small dishes; smorgasbord”), from smörgås (“sandwich”) + bord (“table”). Smörgås is from Swedish smör (“butter”) + gås (“goose”), a reference to pieces of butter which float to the surface of milk when churned.

Meanings

1. A Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes; (by extension) any buffet with a wide selection of dishes.
   • In the middle of the saloon they observed a small table set out with little dishes, containing bread and butter, sardines, pickled herrings, cheese, large baskets filled with rye biscuit, dark and untempting to Mabel's English eye, and the never failing brandy. Gathered around the smorgasbord were all the Swedes talking and eating most earnestly (all standing). 1876, [Justin] André, chapter V, in Overcome, Rouses Point, N.Y.: Lovell Printing & Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 81:
   • Cafeterias, buffets, chuck wagon service and smorgasbords are becoming increasingly popular food service methods. [1965?], California Bureau of Food and Drug Inspections, Recommendations for Food Protection Devices: Cafeterias, Buffets, Chuck Wagons, Smorgasbords, [Berkeley, Calif.]: California State Department of Public Health, →OCLC, page 1:
   • The fame of the smörgåsbord (smorgasbord) is justly deserved. Using a vast array of dishes—everything from Baltic herring to smoked reindeer—the smorgasbord (never served in the evening) can be eaten either as hors d'oeuvres or as a meal in itself. 2011, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Roger Norum, Alexia Travaglini, Frommer’s Scandinavia (Frommer’s), 24th edition, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, →ISBN, page 17:
   • It is a smorgasbord. That means that after you pay a certain amount of money for your meal you can eat anything you want, together with as much as you want. I remember the first time my folks took me to a smorgasbord. I had been in places where they serve you family-style before but never in a smorgasbord. 2010, Pete Helland, “Thanks to God for the Smorgasbord”, in John J. (Jeff) Pepper, editor, Daily Triumph, [United States]: Xulon Press, →ISBN, page 15:
   • In carrying out the Swedish luxury theme, tasty Scandinavian food will be served from the Stratocruiser galley. The lower-deck cocktail bar will feature smorgasbord snacks and drinks. 1946 March, “Swedish Modern Airlines”, in Boeing Magazine, volume XVI, number 3, Seattle, Wash.: Public Relations Division, Boeing Airplane Company, →OCLC, page 95, column 1:
   • “With the debate stage, what you have is a captive audience.” “Do you know how this...” [microphone feedback] “It's like a smorgasbord.” 2023 July 27, Max Brockman & Shana Gohd, “The Campaign” (8:44 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 4, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):
   • Generally, operations are primarily self-service if food or beverages are ordered or selected by a customer by a customer at one location and carried by the customer from such location to the customer's seat. For example, cafeteria lines, buffets, and smorgasbords are primarily self-service. 1984, “Chapter I—Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury—(Continued): (Parts 30 to 39)”, in Code of Federal Regulations: Internal Revenue: [Title] 26, Parts 30 to 39: Revised as of April 1, 1984: […], Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration; General Services Administration; U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, part 31 (Employment Taxes and Collection of Income Tax at Source), § 31.6061-1, paragraph 18, page 256:
2. (figuratively) An abundant and diverse collection of things.
   • The UTG's Tobyn Hughes says: "There is a spectrum or a smorgasbord offering. It will be for each city region and their mayor to push what they think is right for them. What is right in the North East might be different to what they do in London, or what they want in Liverpool and Manchester." 2024 November 13, Peter Plisner, “Rail's role in Labour's "devolution revolution"”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 61:
   • It was a bar by license, but in hiring practice it became an intergalactic smorgasbord of xenosexual delights, females of fancy species serving drinks and offering cultural exchange to human males seeking some strange. 2010, Larry Doyle, “Back Seat Dating”, in Go, Mutants!: A Novel, 1st edition (Fiction), HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 123:
   • If you have an appetite for education statistics, consider the above an appetizer for the smorgasbord you'll find in the Digest of Education Statistics 1990. 1991 September, “Measuring Education”, in Neil Tillman, editor, Census and You: Monthly News from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, volume 26, number 9, Bureau of the Census, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 1:
   • Here is the smorgasbord of life, and our unfocused eyes are even bigger than our stomachs. 2004, Nicholas Ayo, “Information Overload: Mid-December”, in Times of Grace: Spiritual Rhythms of the Year at the University of Notre Dame, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 59:
   • Mainstream culture is clearly fascinated by (and increasingly comfortable with) non-monogamy, and as a result, the Overton window of “provocative content” has shifted:[…]. Hollywood has followed suit, giving us a smorgasbord of sexy throuple representations to feast on across three buzzy new films. 2023 October 2, Courtney Young, “Calling It Now: Throuples Are About to Put Love Triangles Out of Business”, in Cosmopolitan, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2024:
   • Watching my newly single friends, I observed different behaviors in regards to the new single sex. Some women surmised that they needed sex and plenty of it and any man was the right man was them. [...] It appeared to me that this sexual smorgasbord was a way for these women to feel something again. [...] On the other side of the voracious sexual smorgasbord, was the woman who had slapped on a chastity belt and threw away the key. 2005, Lorena Bathey, “Do You Have the Time”, in Happy Beginnings: How I Became My Own Fairy Godmother, [s.l.]: Lorena B Books, published 2011, →ISBN:
   • “Every time you went into the library,” said the book, “the Creator of the Universe held His breath. With such a higgledy-piggledy cultural smorgasbord before you, what would you, with your free will, choose?” 1973, Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Random House, published 2010, →ISBN, page 256:
   • As such, and unlike philosophy which has toyed with this self-definition, it is not good enough for psychoanalysis to be a smorgasbord of alternative ways of interpreting human nature. The smorgasbord of available therapies is already heavily laden with alternative psychotherapies without psychoanalysis adding further varieties of its own. 2010, Charles Hanly, “Logic, Meaning and Truth in Psychoanalytic Research”, in Jorge Canestri, Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Mary Target, editors, Early Development and its Disturbances: Clinical, Conceptual, and Empirical Research on ADHD and Other Psychopathologies and Its Epistemological Reflections, London: Karnac Books, →ISBN, page 211:

Forms

Relateds

hearty meal · A charcuterie is for snacking · a smorgasbord is a full

Synonyms

motley · salad · miscellanea · macedoine · miscellany · melange · potpourri · anthology · bric-a-brac · galimatias · crazyquilt · hotchpotch · clamjamfrey · bouillabaisse · oddments · welter · pastiche · cocktail · horse and rabbit stew · gatherum · medley · hotchpot · omnium-gatherum · miscellany · patchwork quilt · olio · Whitman's sampler · job lot · ragbag · grab bag · mixed bag · mingle-mangle · hodgepodge · catch-all · farrago · medley · slurry · hodgepodge · rummage · gallery · salmagundi · assortment · jumble · odds and ends · congeries · Whitman's sampler · olla podrida · smorgasbord · disjecta membra · mishmash · gallimaufry · mixture

Translations (75)

fr buffet (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · hy շվեդական սեղան (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · sv smörgåsbord (diverse collection of things) · pl szeroki asortyment (diverse collection of things) · sh шве̏дскӣ сто̑ (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ko 뷔페 (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · fi noutopöytä (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · da kolde bord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · fi seisovapöytä (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · es bufet sueco (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · sv smörgåsbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · hu svédasztal (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · is hlaðborð (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · uk шве́дський стіл (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · be шве́дскі стол (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · he סְמֵרְגוֹסְבּוּרְד (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · nl keur (diverse collection of things) · sh švȅdskī stȏl (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · sk švédsky stôl (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ja バイキング (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · scn buffettu (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · vep ročilaine laud (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · et rootsi laud (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · es surtido (diverse collection of things) · kk салқын үстел (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · it rinfresco (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ko 스뫼르고스보르드 (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · fi voileipäpöytä (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · pl bufet (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ja バイキング料理 (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · de skandinavisches Büfett (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · sh шве̏дскӣ сто̑л (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · es abanico (diverse collection of things) · fi valikoima (diverse collection of things) · de Sammelsurium (diverse collection of things) · fi lajitelma (diverse collection of things) · fi pitopöytä (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · cmn 豐富集合 /丰富集合 (diverse collection of things) · sh švȅdskī stȏ (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ja スモーガスボード (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · de kaltes Büfett auf skandinavische Art (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · he מִזְנוֹן (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · nb kaldtbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · nl assortiment (diverse collection of things) · it varietà (diverse collection of things) · mk шведска маса (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · bg шве́дска ма́са (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · vep bufetlaud (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · es smórgasbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · de kunterbunte Mischung (diverse collection of things) · de Smörgåsbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · pl bufet szwedzki (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · it ampia scelta (diverse collection of things) · et külmlaud (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · eo bufedo (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ka სასუსნავი (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · fi seisova pöytä (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · cs švédský stůl (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ru шве́дский стол (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · cmn 自助餐 (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · lt švediškas stalas (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · it buffet svedese (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · pl szwedzki stół (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · kk шведтік дастарқан (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · nl garnituur (diverse collection of things) · es tapas suecas (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · it buffè svedese (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · uk фурше́т (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · et suupistete laud (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · nl smörgåsbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · nb koldtbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · ru фурше́т (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · th บุฟเฟต์ (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · lv zviedru galds (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet) · fr smörgåsbord (Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and other dishes — see also buffet)