Today, I have a four-way confusable: palet, pallet, palate, and palette all mean different things, and they’re easily typoed into each other. A spellchecker won’t help, since they’re all valid spellings.
Here are some notes to help in picking the right spelling.
Palet:
- a botanical term for part of a flower; also called a palea or pale (forgive me for not being more specific on this one; I’m not a botanist, and I only ran into this spelling today)
Pallet:
- the head or armor for the head
- straw-filled mattress, hard bed, or temporary bed
- portable platform; as a verb, to put something on a pallet
- instruments used by potters, plasterers, gilders, bookbinders
- a part of a ratchet wheel, clock, chain pump, or pipe organ
- a stripe on a heraldic shield
Palate:
- roof of mouth
- sense of taste (sensory or intellectual)
- flavor of wine or beer
- as a verb, to taste
Palette:
- board used by artists to mix colors
- range or set of colors
- a tool used by a croupier to move cards, money, and chips on a table
References:
- Palet, Pallet, Palate, and Palette @ Merriam-Webster Unabridged
- Palet, Pallet, Palate, and Palette @ Oxford English Dictionary
- Garner’s Modern English Usage, 5th ed, pg. 3252–3253
- Dreyer’s English, pg. 198
