palate

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pal=ate

CIDE DICTIONARY

palate, n. [L. palatum: cf. F. palais, Of. also palat.].

•  The roof of the mouth.  [1913 Webster]

  " The fixed portion, or palate proper, supported by the maxillary and palatine bones, is called the hard palate to distinguish it from the membranous and muscular curtain which separates the cavity of the mouth from the pharynx and is called the soft palate, or velum."  [1913 Webster]
•  Relish; taste; liking; -- a sense originating in the mistaken notion that the palate is the organ of taste.  [1913 Webster]

  "Hard task! to hit the palate of such guests."  [1913 Webster]
•  Mental relish; intellectual taste.  T. Baker.  [1913 Webster]
•  A projection in the throat of such flowers as the snapdragon.  [1913 Webster]

palate, v. t. 

 To perceive by the taste.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

palate, n.
1 a structure closing the upper part of the mouth cavity in vertebrates.
2 the sense of taste.
3 a mental taste or inclination; liking.

Etymology

ME f. L palatum

THESAURUS

palate

aftertaste, alveolar ridge, alveolus, apex, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciativeness, artistic judgment, arytenoid cartilages, back, bitter, blade, connoisseurship, critical niceness, criticalness, delicacy, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, dorsum, fastidiousness, feel, feeling, fine palate, finesse, flavor, gust, gusto, hard palate, heart, judiciousness, larynx, lingua, lips, making distinctions, nasal cavity, niceness of distinction, nicety, oral cavity, pharyngeal cavity, pharynx, refined discrimination, refined palate, refinement, relish, salt, sapidity, sapor, savor, savoriness, selectiveness, sense, sensibility, sensitivity, smack, soft palate, sour, speech organ, stomach, subtlety, sweet, syrinx, tact, tactfulness, tang, taste, taste bud, teeth, teeth ridge, tip, tongue, tooth, velum, vocal chink, vocal cords, vocal folds, vocal processes, voice box, zest

ROGET THESAURUS

palate

Taste

N taste, good taste, refined taste, cultivated taste, delicacy, refinement, fine feeling, gust, gusto, tact, finesse, nicety, to prepon, polish, elegance, grace, judgment, discernment, dilettantism, dilettanteism, virtu, fine art, culture, cultivation, aesthetics, man of taste, connoisseur, judge, critic, conoscente, virtuoso, amateur, dilettante, Aristarchus, Corinthian, arbiter elegantiarum, stagirite, euphemist, caviare to the general, in good taste, cute, tasteful, tasty, unaffected, pure, chaste, classical, attic, cultivated, refined, dainty, esthetic, aesthetic, artistic, elegant, euphemistic, to one's taste, to one's mind, after one's fancy, comme il faut, tire a quatre epingles, elegantly, nihil tetigit quod non ornavit, chacun a son gout, oculi pictura tenentur aures cantibus, taste, flavor, gust, gusto, savor, gout, relish, sapor, sapidity, twang, smack, smatch, aftertaste, tang, tasting, degustation, gustation, palate, tongue, tooth, stomach, sapid, saporific, gustable, gustatory, gustful, strong, gamy, palatable.