noun

pallet

PA-liht

noun

A flat, portable platform used for stacking and moving goods, typically with a forklift.

"The warehouse workers loaded boxes onto a wooden pallet."

"A full pallet of bottled water was delivered to the store."

A hard, makeshift, or simple bed, often just straw or a thin mattress on the floor.

"He slept on a pallet in the corner of the barn."

"The refugees were given blankets and a pallet to sleep on."

How to Use Pallet

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishMost often the wooden platform used to move stacked goods in warehouses; occasionally a simple straw bed.

Common mistake

Don't confuse with "palate" (the roof of the mouth or a sense of taste) or "palette" (an artist's board of paint colours) — all three sound alike but mean very different things.

Easily confused with

palate → palette →

Common pairings

a pallet of goods wooden pallet forklift pallet

Word Forms

palleted past tense, pallets plural, pallets plural, pallets plural, pallets singular

Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.

Test yourself on “pallet” A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage →

Fill the Gap

Can you complete this real example?

The warehouse workers loaded boxes onto a wooden _____.

Etymology

From Old French paillete, "bundle of straw," from paille ("straw"), from Latin palea ("chaff") — the straw-bed sense came first; the shipping platform sense developed much later.

Rhymes for pallet

mallet wallet ballet

See all rhymes for pallet →