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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.

paletteorpallet

What is the difference between palette and pallet?

palettepallet
Part of speechnounnoun, 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

ExampleUse your mouse to select the colour you want to use from the circular colour paletteNear-synonym: strawbed (mattress sense)
Formspalettespallets
Pronunciation/ˈpælɪt/ /ˈpælət//ˈpælɪt/ /ˈpælət/
In writing5.5 times per million words1.3 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. 1

    noun A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes colours

  2. 2

    noun 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. 3

    noun The range of colors in a given work or item or body of work

  4. 4

    noun The range of tones or tone colors in a given musical composition or performance

  5. 5

    noun A set of makeup including a variety of colors, often packaged together in a tray

    She removed an eyeshadow palette from her bag

  6. 6

    noun A visual selection of colours, tools, commands, etc

  7. 7

    noun A plate of armour covering the points of junction at the bend of the shoulders and elbows

  8. 8

    noun A plate against which a person presses their chest to give force to a hand-operated drill

pallet

  1. 1

    noun A bed of loose straw

    Near-synonym: strawbed (mattress sense)

  2. 2

    verb To load or stack (goods) onto pallets

  3. 3

    noun A narrow vertical stripe, narrower than a pale. Diminutive of pale

  4. 4

    noun A wooden implement, often oval or round, used by potters, crucible makers, etc., for forming, beating, and rounding their works

  5. 5

    noun Any makeshift bedding place

    Near-synonym: scratcher (slang)

  6. 6

    noun A potter's wheel

  7. 7

    noun A portable platform, usually designed to be easily moved by a forklift, on which goods can be stacked, for transport or storage

  8. 8

    noun 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.

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.

The words