From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
palace
n 1: a large and stately mansion [syn: castle]
2: the governing group of a kingdom; "the palace issued an
order binding on all subjects"
3: a large ornate exhibition hall
4: official residence of an exalted person (as a sovereign)
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Palace \Pal"ace\ (p[a^]l"[asl]s; 48), n. [OE. palais, F. palais,
fr. L. palatium, fr. Palatium, one of the seven hills of
Rome, on which Augustus had his residence. Cf. Paladin.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The residence of a sovereign, including the lodgings of
high officers of state, and rooms for business, as well as
halls for ceremony and reception. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
2. The official residence of a bishop or other distinguished
personage.
[1913 Webster]
3. Loosely, any unusually magnificent or stately house.
[1913 Webster]
Palace car. See under Car.
Palace court, a court having jurisdiction of personal
actions arising within twelve miles of the palace at
Whitehall. The court was abolished in 1849. [Eng.]
--Mozley & W.
[1913 Webster]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
Palace
<virtual reality, chat> A proprietary multi-user {virtual
reality}-like talk system.
The Palace is distinguished from most other VR-like systems in
that it is only two-dimensional rather than three; rooms,
avatars, and "props" are made up of relatively small 2D
bitmap images.
Palace is a crude hack, or lightweight, depending on
your point of view.
{Home (http://www.thepalace.com/)}.
(1997-09-14)