{{Short description|Roof of the mouth}} {{Distinguish|palette (disambiguation){{!}}palette|pallet (disambiguation){{!}}pallet|pellet (disambiguation){{!}}pellet}} {{For|the restaurant|Palate (restaurant)}} {{Redirect|Palatal|the phonetics article|Palatal consonant}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox anatomy | Name = Palate | Latin = palatum | Image = Illu01 head neck.jpg | Caption = Head and neck. | Width = | Image2 = 06-06-06palataltori.jpg | Caption2 = Palate exhibiting torus palatinus | Precursor = | System = | Artery = | Vein = | Nerve = | Lymph = }}
The '''palate''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|l|ᵻ|t}}) is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.<ref name="Wingerd166"> {{cite book | last = Wingerd | first = Bruce D. | title = The Human Body Concepts of Anatomy and Physiology | publisher = Saunders College Publishing | year = 1811 | location = Fort Worth | pages = 166 | isbn = 0-03-055507-8}}</ref> A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separated. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior, bony hard palate and the posterior, fleshy soft palate (or velum).<ref name="Wingerd478">{{cite book | last = Wingerd | first = Bruce D. | title = The Human Body Concepts of Anatomy and Physiology | publisher = Saunders College Publishing | year = 1994 | location = Fort Worth | pages = 478 | isbn = 0-03-055507-8}}</ref><ref name="Gray1172"> {{cite book | last = Goss | first = Charles Mayo | title = Gray's Anatomy | publisher = Lea & Febiger | year = 1966 | location = Philadelphia | pages = 1172 }}</ref>
==Structure== {{See also|Hard palate|Soft palate}}
===Innervation=== The maxillary nerve branch of the trigeminal nerve supplies sensory innervation to the palate.
===Development=== The hard palate forms before birth.
===Variation=== {{See also|Cleft palate}} {{See also|Torus palatinus}} {{See also|High-arched palate}} If the fusion is incomplete, a cleft palate results.
==Function in humans== When functioning in conjunction with other parts of the mouth, the palate produces certain sounds, particularly velar, palatal, palatalized, postalveolar, alveolopalatal, and uvular consonants.<ref name="Gray1201"> {{cite book | last = Goss | first = Charles Mayo | title = Gray's Anatomy | publisher = Lea & Febiger | year = 1966 | location = Philadelphia | pages = 1201 }}</ref>
== Evolution == Early synapsids lacked the secondary palate separating the mouth and nasal cavities, with this feature evolving in cynodonts and retained by mammals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Norton |first=Luke A. |last2=Abdala |first2=Fernando |last3=Benoit |first3=Julien |date=2023-07-03 |title=Craniodental anatomy in Permian–Jurassic Cynodontia and Mammaliaformes (Synapsida, Therapsida) as a gateway to defining mammalian soft tissue and behavioural traits |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/378/1880/20220084/109200/Craniodental-anatomy-in-Permian-Jurassic |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B |language=en |volume=378 |issue=1880 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2022.0084 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=10184251 |pmid=37183903}}</ref> Ancestrally in tetrapods, the roof of the mouth has patches of teeth (palatal dentition). These teeth are retained in living lepidosaurian reptiles and modern amphibians and were present in early synapsids and therapsids, but were lost in cynodonts and their mammalian descendants.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Matsumoto|first=Ryoko|last2=Evans|first2=Susan E.|date=January 2017|title=The palatal dentition of tetrapods and its functional significance|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.12534|journal=Journal of Anatomy|language=en|volume=230|issue=1|pages=47–65|doi=10.1111/joa.12534|issn=0021-8782|pmc=5192890|pmid=27542892}}</ref>
==History== ===Etymology=== 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.<ref name=etym-palate>{{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=palate (the entry for)|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=palate&searchmode=none|work=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=10 September 2011|quote=palate – late 14c., 'roof of the mouth,' from O.Fr. palat, from L. palatum 'roof of the mouth,' perhaps of Etruscan origin. Popularly considered the seat of taste, hence transferred meaning 'sense of taste' (1520s).}}</ref>
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.<ref name=etym-palatine>{{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=palatine (the entry for)|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=palatine&searchmode=none|work=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=10 September 2011|quote=palatine (adj.) – mid-15c., from M.Fr. palatin (15c.), from M.L. palatinus 'of the palace' (of the Caesars), from L. palatium (see palace). Used in English to mean 'quasi-royal authority.' Reference to the Rhineland state is from c.1580.}}</ref>
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". By further extension, the flavor of a food (particularly beer or wine) may be called its palate, as when a wine is said to have an oaky palate.{{cn|date=May 2025}}
==See also== {{Anatomy-terms}} *Language *Vocal tract *Pallet, palette and pellet, objects whose names are homophonous with ''palate'' for many English-speakers *Palatability
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book | last = Saladin | first = Kenneth | title = Anatomy and Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function | publisher = McGraw Hill | year = 2010 | location = New York | pages = 256 }} *{{cite book | last = Thompson | first = Gale | title = World of Anatomy and Physiology | publisher = Thompson Corporation | date = 2005–2006 | pages = Palate (Hard and Soft Palate) }}
{{Mouth anatomy}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Palate Category:Otorhinolaryngology