Palette

Etymology

From French "palette" (a small blade or flat plate), a diminutive of "pale," from Latin "pala" (spade, shovel). It first meant the physical board a painter holds and mixes on, then shifted to the selection of colors laid out on it.

noun · /PAL-it/
The particular range of colors an artist or work uses.
What it names
The color world of a piece — warm and muted, cold and neon — letting you describe the overall mood a set of colors creates, in painting, film, or design.
Example
The film’s washed-out palette of grays and pale blues made even the summer scenes feel cold.
Related idea
A palette is the whole set of colors in play; a hue is one individual color within it — a single position on the color wheel. You describe a palette as a range; you name a hue as a point.
noun · /PAL-it/
The flat board on which a painter lays out and mixes colors.
What it names
the physical tool.
Example
He squeezed dabs of oil paint onto his palette.
Related idea
The literal object; the “range of colors” sense is what a given palette holds.