The basic caret meaning is a small upside-down V mark (^ or ‸) that editors write below a line of text to show where a missing letter, word or punctuation mark should be inserted. If a teacher sees "I went the market", she may draw a caret between "went" and "the" and write "to" above it.
On computer keyboards the same name is used for the ^ key. There it has several jobs, from showing powers in maths (2^3) to standing for the Control key. The word sounds exactly like carrot and carat, which causes plenty of mix-ups.
Entry at a glance
Meaning
An insertion mark in editing; the ^ symbol on keyboardsPart of speech
Noun (plural: carets)Pronunciation
KAIR-it, the same as carrotSymbol
^ on keyboards; ‸ is the dedicated proofreading caretOrigin
Latin caret, "it lacks", from carere, "to lack"; English from the 1680sSound-alikes
carat (gem weight), karat (gold purity), carrot (vegetable)Register
Neutral; used in editing, maths and computing
The caret meaning in editing
In proofreading, a caret is a signal: "add something here". The editor puts the point of the mark exactly where the gap is, then writes the missing material in the margin or above the line.
- A caret below the line, pointing up, is typical for letters, words and low punctuation such as commas and full stops.
- An upside-down caret above the line is often used for marks that sit high, such as apostrophes and quotation marks.
Students meet carets when teachers mark essays by hand, and writers meet them in printed proofs. In digital editing, a comment or tracked change does the same job.
Caret definition on a keyboard
To define caret in computing, it is the name for the ^ character, typed with Shift and 6 on a standard US keyboard. Officially the character is called a circumflex accent, but almost everyone calls it a caret. Its main uses:
- Exponents: in spreadsheets, calculators and plain text, 5^2 means five squared, which is 25.
- Control key: in manuals, ^C means hold Ctrl and press C.
- Programming: in many languages ^ is the exclusive-or (XOR) operator; in search patterns it can mean "start of the line".
- Online chat: a lone ^ under a message means "what the person above said" or "I agree with that".
Programmers also use caret for the blinking text cursor that shows where your typing will appear, a nice link back to the editing sense of "insert here".
Caret in sentences
- My editor added a caret after "Dear" because I forgot the client's name.
- Type 3^4 in the spreadsheet and it returns 81.
- The guide says to press ^S to save, which means Control and S.
- Someone posted a great tip, and three people replied with just a caret.
- Click anywhere in the box and the caret will start blinking there.
Caret, carat, karat and carrot
All four sound the same in most accents: KAIR-it. Their spellings and meanings are completely different.
| Spelling | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| caret | Insertion mark; the ^ symbol | Add a caret before the comma |
| carat | Unit of weight for gems, 200 milligrams | A two-carat diamond |
| karat | Purity of gold in 24ths (US spelling) | 18-karat gold |
| carrot | The orange root vegetable | Grated carrot in the salad |
In British and Indian English, carat is often used for gold purity too, so you may see "22 carat gold" on jewellery shop signs. In American English that would be "22 karat". A memory trick: caret is about text.
Why it is called caret
The name is a Latin verb form: caret means "it lacks" or "there is something missing", from carere, "to be without". Scribes and printers used the word for the mark that flagged a gap, and English printers were using the term by the 1680s. So every time you draw one, you are writing a tiny Latin sentence: something is lacking here.
The keyboard name came later. Because the ^ shape looks like the proofreader's mark, people borrowed the word for it, even though the character was first meant to be a circumflex accent over letters, as in French château.
Frequently asked questions
What is a caret symbol?
It is the ^ mark. In editing it shows where to insert something. On computers it is the Shift+6 key character, used for powers, the Control key and some programming jobs.
How do you pronounce caret?
KAIR-it, exactly like carrot and carat. Context and spelling tell readers which one you mean.
What does ^ mean in maths?
It means "to the power of". 2^5 is 2 multiplied by itself five times, which equals 32. You see it in calculators and spreadsheets because a raised number is hard to type.
What does ^ mean in a text or comment?
It usually points to the message above and means "this" or "I agree". Several carets in a row (^^^) simply add emphasis.
Is a caret the same as a circumflex?
They look alike. A circumflex is an accent placed over a letter, such as ê. A caret is a standalone mark. The keyboard ^ is technically the circumflex character, but its everyday name is caret.
What is the difference between caret and carat?
A caret is a writing mark. A carat measures the weight of gemstones, and in some countries the purity of gold.