Palate, palette, pallet

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Grammarist

The palate is (1) the roof of the mouth, and (2) the sense of taste, and it’s also a fancy word for flavor, especially in writing on food wine.

A palette is the board painters use to hold and mix their colors. By extension, it sometimes denotes the range of colors used in a design or work of art.

Pallet usually refers to a platform used for moving cargo or freight, but the word has several other rare definitions in industry and shipping.

Examples

The snaptastic house-made sausage sported a fresh jalapeno and lime aioli that perked and cleansed the palate. [Chicago Sun-Times]

The 18-month-old has been in the operating theatre at the Royal Children’s Hospital three times since his birth to repair his cleft lip and palate. [Herald Sun]

Rosy-toned table linens, napkin rings and utensils sweeten up a palette heavy on black and gold. [Globe and Mail]

A thousand hues of green, a patina of browns and a palette of every colour we know. [Guardian]

Then it is dried, wrapped in plastic, placed atop a pallet, and driven northeast on Interstate 59. [The Atlantic]

The shipment had been rejected by a company because of damage in shipping, one pallet showing a number of boxes crunched on one side. [Herald Mail]

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