Palette or pallet?
palette is a noun meaning “A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes colours”; pallet is a noun meaning “A bed of loose straw”. They sound the same (/ˈpælɪt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) palette is about 4.2 times as common as pallet.
What is the difference between palette and pallet?
| palette | pallet | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes colours A set of colours available to be used (or mixed) | A bed of loose straw Any makeshift bedding place To load or stack (goods) onto pallets |
| Example | Use your mouse to select the colour you want to use from the circular colour palette | Near-synonym: strawbed (mattress sense) |
| Forms | palettes | pallets |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpælɪt/ /ˈpælət/ | /ˈpælɪt/ /ˈpælət/ |
| In writing | 5.5 times per million words | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: palette and pallet in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of palette and pallet
palette
- 1
A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes colours
- 2
A set of colours available to be used (or mixed)
Use your mouse to select the colour you want to use from the circular colour palette
- 3
The range of colors in a given work or item or body of work
- 4
The range of tones or tone colors in a given musical composition or performance
- 5
A set of makeup including a variety of colors, often packaged together in a tray
She removed an eyeshadow palette from her bag
- 6
A visual selection of colours, tools, commands, etc
- 7
A plate of armour covering the points of junction at the bend of the shoulders and elbows
- 8
A plate against which a person presses their chest to give force to a hand-operated drill
pallet
- 1
A bed of loose straw
Near-synonym: strawbed (mattress sense)
- 2
To load or stack (goods) onto pallets
- 3
A narrow vertical stripe, narrower than a pale. Diminutive of pale
- 4
A wooden implement, often oval or round, used by potters, crucible makers, etc., for forming, beating, and rounding their works
- 5
Any makeshift bedding place
Near-synonym: scratcher (slang)
- 6
A potter's wheel
- 7
A portable platform, usually designed to be easily moved by a forklift, on which goods can be stacked, for transport or storage
- 8
An instrument used to take up gold leaf from the pillow, and to apply it
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, palette or pallet?
palette appears 5.5 times per million words; pallet 1.3 times per million words.
palette 5.5 times per million wordspallet 1.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search palette vs pallet?
“palette vs pallet” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 80 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“pallet vs palette”, “palette or pallet”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.