pallet
n. countablen. a flat wooden frame used for moving or storing heavy goods. You see these in warehouses or being moved by small trucks.
n. a portable platform, typically made of wood or plastic, used for the storage and transport of goods. Often moved by forklifts or hydraulic jacks.
The workers stacked the heavy boxes onto a wooden pallet.
The warehouse manager ordered fifty more pallets to handle the incoming shipment of electronics.
Standardising the dimensions of the shipping pallet was a crucial development in global logistics, allowing for the efficient loading of containers and trucks across different continents.
From Middle English paillet, from Anglo-Norman paillete (“bundle of straw”), from Old French paille (“straw, chaff”), from Latin palea (“chaff”).
Said to be from Middle English palet, from Middle French palet, from Middle French pal (“pale”), ultimately from Latin palla (“a strip of cloth”).
Learned borrowing from French palette.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Commonly used in industrial and logistics contexts.
Last updated May 8, 2026