The palate (/ˈpælɪt/) is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals.

[1] A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separated.

[4] The English synonyms palate and palatum, and also the related adjective palatine (as in palatine bone), are all from the Latin palatum via Old French palat, words that like their English derivatives, refer to the "roof" of the mouth.

[5] The Latin word palatum is of unknown (possibly Etruscan) ultimate origin and served also as a source to the Latin word meaning palace, palatium, from which other senses of palatine and the English word palace derive, and not the other way round.

[6] As the roof of the mouth was once considered the seat of the sense of taste, palate can also refer to this sense itself, as in the phrase "a discriminating palate".