✅ A mishmash is a confused mess of different things (The dish was a mishmash of whatever I had in the refrigerator).

✅ An olio is a mixture of different elements (The quaint shop sold an olio of curated items).

✅ While mishmash and olio both refer to mixtures made up of different elements, mishmash is often a negative term suggesting confusion and disorganization (Her decor was really a mishmash).

✅ Olio is more neutral and suggests an organized mix that has variety (Their library was a delightful olio).

✅ Frill refers to extra things that make something look cool or fancy. Frill is often plural and commonly used in the phrase ‘no frills’ (an efficient no-frills design).

✅ Frippery refers to empty, over-the-top displays or things done for display (I didn’t like all the frippery on the gown).

✅ Both frill and frippery are used negatively or dismissively to refer to useless things that are used just for effect or to make something look better than it really is (The movie looks good, but it’s all frill and no substance; She loved frippery in her clothes but not in her home decor).

✅ A pawn is someone who is used by someone else, generally in order to further a cause or plot that the person being used is unaware of (I was a pawn in my friend’s plan to get time off work).

✅ A puppet is a person or group of people whose actions are being controlled by another person or another group of people (The king was a puppet, controlled by his advisor).

✅ Pawn suggests being used or manipulated, but not necessarily controlled, while puppet suggests being controlled, but not necessarily manipulated.