Palatable

How to spell palatable

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce palatable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does palatable mean?

1. adjectivePleasant enough to eat or drink; agreeable to the sense of taste.
2. adjectiveAcceptable or agreeable to consider, even if not entirely welcome.

Palatable in a sentence

• The hospital food was bland but surprisingly palatable.

• The manager softened the report to make the findings more palatable to the board.

• A pinch of salt made the soup far more palatable.

• A phased rollout was the only palatable option for the nervous investors.

Where does palatable come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows out of the Latin palatum, the name for the palate or roof of the mouth, which the Romans regarded as the organ of taste. From that noun English coined the adjective palatable in the early 1600s by adding the familiar ending -able, meaning 'capable of being' or 'worthy of', so the literal sense is 'fit for the palate', that is, pleasant to taste. Over time it stretched beyond food to cover anything agreeable to accept, such as a plan, a price, or an unwelcome truth. The same palatum root sits inside the everyday anatomical word 'palate' and the related 'palatal' used in phonetics. Remembering that the middle of the word is plain 'palate' (not 'pallet' the wooden frame, nor 'palette' the painter's board) is the surest guard against misspelling it, since the single l and the a-l-a sequence echo the mouth itself.

How the word is built

• palat- (from Latin palatum: the palate, the roof of the mouth, treated as the seat of taste)
• -able (capable of, worthy of)