palette

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
palette /ˈpalɪt/

▶noun

• 1 a thin board or other surface on which an artist lays and mixes colours.

• 2 the range of colours used by a particular artist or at a particular time.

  ■ the range or variety of tonal or instrumental colour in a musical piece.

– origin C18: from Fr., dimin. of pale ‘shovel’, from L. pala ‘spade’.