Palate vs palette vs pallet
Palate is the roof of your mouth, and also your sense of taste. Palette is about color: an artist's mixing board or a set of colors. Pallet is a flat platform for stacking goods.
Palate has ate in it, and taste is what your palate does.
palate noun
The roof of your mouth, or a person's ability to taste flavors, tell them apart and enjoy them.
- She has an unusually refined palate and can name every herb in a sauce.
- Spicy food was too much for his palate at first.
palette noun
A thin board where a painter mixes paint, or a set or range of colors.
- He mixed a muddy green on his palette and dabbed it onto the canvas.
- Her later paintings shift to a darker palette of browns and deep reds.
pallet noun
A flat, portable platform that goods are stacked on so they can be moved or stored, often by forklift.
- The forklift driver lifted a pallet of bottled water onto the truck.
- The warehouse was stacked to the ceiling with pallets of flour.
Watch out
- Palate, palette and pallet are usually all said PAL-it, so only the spelling tells them apart. Palate does not rhyme with ate.
- Pallet can also mean a simple bed made on the floor or a straw mattress. It is still spelled pallet.She made up a pallet on the living room floor for her visiting nephew.
- Palate can describe the taste of a wine or other drink, not just a person's sense of taste.The cider has a crisp, dry palate with a hint of green apple.
Test yourself
The designer chose a soft blank of blues and grays for the bedroom.
Show answer
palette. A set of colors chosen for a design is a palette.
The truck delivered a blank of bricks to the building site.
Show answer
pallet. Goods stacked on a platform for moving sit on a pallet.
The chef's sharp blank caught a hint of lemon in the soup.
Show answer
palate. The ability to taste flavors is a palate.
The painter wiped her brush and squeezed fresh red onto her blank.
Show answer
palette. The board a painter mixes paint on is a palette.
Full entries: palatepalettepallet