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