Palate vs Palette: What’s the Difference?

The difference at a glance

Palate refers specifically to your sense of taste and ability to discern flavors. Palette describes the physical board used for mixing paint or the specific range of colors used by an artist.

What does Palate mean?

noun · /ˈpæl.ɪt/

A person's appreciation of taste and flavour. Also: the roof of the mouth, which plays a role in tasting and speaking. In wine and food, 'palate' refers to the entire sensory apparatus of tasting — the ability to notice, distinguish, and appreciate.

Palate in a sentence

Years of tasting had given her a palate that could distinguish the vintage without looking at the label.

He had a wide literary palate — equally at home with Victorian novels and contemporary poetry.

What does Palette mean?

noun · /ˈpæl.ɪt/

The range of colors habitually used by an artist or characteristic of a particular work. Also the flat board on which painters mix colors. More broadly, any particular selection or range of qualities.

Palette in a sentence

Turner's palette grew paler and more luminous as he aged — a lifetime condensed into a way of seeing light.

Her autumn palette — ochre, rust, burnt sienna — had become so recognizable that collectors could spot her work instantly.

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