palate

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

palate
    n 1: the upper surface of the mouth that separates the oral and
         nasal cavities [syn: {palate}, {roof of the mouth}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Palate \Pal"ate\, n. [L. palatum: cf. F. palais, Of. also
   palat.]
   1. (Anat.) The roof of the mouth.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: 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]

   2. 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. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Fig.: Mental relish; intellectual taste. --T. Baker.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Bot.) A projection in the throat of such flowers as the
      snapdragon.
      [1913 Webster]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Palate \Pal"ate\, v. t.
   To perceive by the taste. [Obs.] --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

80 Moby Thesaurus words for "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