Heterogeneous can be used to describe the diversity of nearly anything — populations, mixtures, collections. A heterogeneous array of immigrants passed through Ellis Island to help create the American "melting pot."
Its origins are scientific, but a sexy way to remember the meaning of this word is that homo is the same and hetero is different. Heterogeneous is a word that works great describing a great variety of things. Anytime you are confronted with a group that are not similar, you have an opportunity to trot out heterogeneous.
