Smorgasbord
(pronounced smawr-gus-bawrd) noun
Definition
1. a buffet comprising a variety of hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, salads, meats, cheeses, fishes, etc. 2. a wide variety or assortment of something; a medley, often of dissimilar or incongruous elements.
Main Example
- Just a few years ago, any mention of professional golf invariably conjured up images of Tiger Woods, who strode high, towering over everyone else. It’s a very different world now, thanks to the field being led by a smorgasbord of younger and almost equally competitive players. To quote PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, “Week in week out we’ve got 10 to 15 players who have a shot at winning on Sunday, and new personalities are constantly emerging.”
Workplace Examples
- A pity you couldn’t attend that brainstorming session we had last week. It yielded quite a smorgasbord of possible strategies and tactics on how best to fight off this new competition from Germany.
- Sure, you can find a few spices at that grocery store just outside your subdivision, but they’ll have at best a handful of varieties, and the containers may even have dust on them because there is so little turnover. You go to Whole Foods and you’ll see a whole section devoted to familiar and exotic spices, ready for any international recipe...It’s a smorgasbord!
Other Examples
- this author’s flagship seminar “Power of the Spoken Word + Techniques to Communicate with Impact and Sway” offering participants a smorgasbord of skills and techniques they can apply readily
- a smorgasbord of desserts; at a lavish wedding in New Delhi, guests being overwhelmed with a smorgasbord of different cuisines, including Italian, Chinese, Indian Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Mediterranean, Rajasthani, South Indian, Punjabi...
- after examining someone’s investment portfolio, a financial advisor commenting: “I’m really impressed by the smorgasbord of equity mutual funds that you have here. There are some small cap funds...some mid-caps...also a couple of large caps; I notice you have both value and growth funds; you even have some highly rated international stock funds. Very diversified. Great job!”
- the smorgasbord of eminently useful health and nutrition tips that are contained in each issue of the “Consumer Reports on Health” newsletter