Other forms: palettes
A palette is the board a painter mixes colours on, and by extension the set of colours used. A wooden palette, a limited palette, an earthy palette.
A limited palette is a deliberate choice of few colours and is a real discipline rather than a shortage. In design and computing a palette is the fixed set of available colours. Note the three homophones, which are worth separating: a palette is for paint, a palate is the roof of the mouth and so a sense of taste, and a pallet is a wooden shipping platform.
1nounpaletteThe board a painter mixes colours on.
“The artist squeezed some blue and white paint onto her palette.”
2nounsetThe set of colours used in a work or design.
“The designer chose a calm palette of greys, creams and soft blues for the bedroom.”
palette is a board or set of colours.
French palette is a little spade or blade, a diminutive of Latin pala. Pallet, the shipping platform, is the same word, which is why the two spellings will not stay apart.
French
palette
English, today
palette
Borrowed from French palette. a doublet of pallet.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Music, Art & Culture, Beauty & Cosmetics