palate
Americannoun
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Anatomy. the roof of the mouth, consisting of an anterior bony portion hard palate and a posterior muscular portion soft palate, orvelum that separate the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
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the sense of taste.
It was a dinner to delight the palate.
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intellectual or aesthetic taste; mental appreciation.
She is said to have a discriminating palate for the arts.
verb (used with object)
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to find pleasing to the taste.
My friend was very ill and could not palate much of anything.
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to find acceptable or agreeable to the mind or feelings.
Your position is hard to palate, because I believe there is such a thing as objective morality.
noun
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the roof of the mouth, separating the oral and nasal cavities See hard palate soft palate
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the sense of taste
she had no palate for the wine
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relish or enjoyment
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botany (in some two-lipped corollas) the projecting part of the lower lip that closes the opening of the corolla
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The roof of the mouth in vertebrate animals, separating the mouth from the passages of the nose.
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◆ The bony part of the palate is called the hard palate.
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◆ A soft, flexible, rear portion of the palate, called the soft palate, is present in mammals only and serves to close off the mouth from the nose during swallowing.
Usage
What’s the difference between palate, palette, and pallet? The word palate refers to the roof of the mouth. More figuratively, palate can refer to a person’s particular sense of taste (as in the way they perceive flavors), or to a person’s general, intellectual taste (as in their specific preferences for things). A palette is that board that painters keep their paints on while painting (most traditionally, an oval one with a thumbhole for holding). The word pallet most commonly refers to a flat, square (often wood) platform used to hold goods for shipping (it’s sometimes called a skid).All three of these words are pronounced exactly the same, and they’re always used as nouns.The word palette is closely associated with art and color. It can also refer to a collection or range of colors or techniques. For example, the term color palette refers to a specific set of colors, such as the ones that a particular artist typically works with.The word pallet can sometimes be used to refer to a painter’s palette, but this spelling is much less commonly used.So how to keep all three spellings straight?A palette is the thing a painter always keeps on hand—literally—while painting. In this way, you can think of a painter’s palette (which is spelled with one L) as a painter’s pal.A pallet (ending in -let) is the platform that lets shippers easily transport goods.Think of palate (ending in -ate) as a word related to what you ate.Here’s an example of palate, palette, and pallet used correctly in a sentence.Example: The art installation consists of wooden pallets painted in a vibrant palette of colors—it’s interesting, but it’s not quite suited to my palate. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between palate, palette, and pallet.
Commonly Confused
Discover More
It is sometimes said that a person has a “cultivated palate” if he or she has a discerning taste for food.
Other Word Forms
- palateless adjective
- palatelike adjective
Etymology
Origin of palate
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English palat, from Latin palātum “roof of the mouth”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Learning a cuisine’s core spices sharpens your palate and reminds you that flavor, like culture, is cumulative — built from small, deliberate choices that add up to something unmistakable.
From Salon
They provide the warm hum underneath everything, the thing your palate may not name but immediately trusts.
From Salon
One part 90s nostalgia, one part algorithmic aesthetics, one part cultural palate shift.
From Salon
Reported problems include spina bifida, cleft palate, and a range of intellectual, communication, behavior and memory disorders.
From Science Daily
It’s dry but not bone-dry, a wine to please a wide range of palates.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
