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Palate vs Palette

pal·ate
–noun
1. Anatomy. the roof of the mouth, consisting of an anterior bony portion (hard palate) and a posterior muscular portion (soft palate) that separate the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
2. the sense of taste: a dinner to delight the palate.
3. intellectual or aesthetic taste; mental appreciation.

pal·ette
–noun
1. a thin and usually oval or oblong board or tablet with a thumb hole at one end, used by painters for holding and mixing colors.
2. any other flat surface used by a painter for this purpose.
3. the set of colors on such a board or surface.
4. the range of colors used by a particular artist.
5. the variety of techniques or range of any art: a lush but uneven musical palette.
6. the complete range of colors made available by a computer graphics card, from which a user or program may choose those to be displayed.
7. (in ancient Egyptian art) a somewhat flattish slate object of various shapes, carved with commemorative scenes or motifs or, esp. in the smaller pieces, containing a recessed area probably for holding eye makeup and often used as a votive offering.

From Dictionary.com

I’m hardly an infallible word user and could often use an editor, but which one seems more appropriate in the sentence, “This food is pleasing to the palate/palette,” after reading the definitions above? I just read two published food articles using the latter and feel like I’m losing it. It should be palate, right? Help me out here.

One Comment

  1. Simon Rose wrote:

    Yes, pretty much by the second definition of palate.

    Friday, March 12, 2010 at 9:19 am | Permalink

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