caret
Pluralcarets
- 1A mark ⟨ ‸ ⟩ used by writers and proofreaders to show that something should be inserted at that point in the text.
The editor drew a caret under the line and wrote the missing word above it.
Her returned essay had carets wherever the instructor wanted words added.
Note
Latin supplies the picture: caret means "it lacks," the third-person form of careō, "I lack." The mark announces exactly that: something is missing here, and the missing words go above the line or in the margin. The symbol and screen meanings descend from this one, while the turtle name comes from a separate French word that happens to share the spelling.
- 2A symbol ⟨^⟩ used as an exponentiation operator, as in 2^8.
In many programming languages and on many calculators, the caret serves as the exponentiation operator.
He wrote x^2 with a caret because the plain-text editor couldn't display superscripts.
- 3An indicator on a screen, often a blinking vertical bar and commonly called a cursor, that marks where the next text insertion or edit will occur.
Press the arrow keys to move the caret through the document without touching the mouse.
When the dialog opens, the caret appears in the search field, ready for input.
Similarcursor
Note
On screen, the old insertion mark found a new job. The blinking bar shows where typed text will land, just as the proofreader's mark shows where a word belongs. Most people simply call it a cursor. Interface designers often keep caret for the text bar and pointer for the arrow that follows the mouse, which keeps the two apart in technical writing.
- 4A circumflex accent ⟨ ˆ ⟩, the angled mark written above a letter in some languages.
The caret over the a in 'château' marks where an s once stood in older French.
English 'hotel' dropped the caret that French 'hôtel' still carries over the o.
Similarcircumflex
Note
A loose use, taken from the look of the mark rather than its job. In careful writing about languages or typography, call the accent over the o of hôtel a circumflex. Keep caret for the insertion mark and the keyboard symbol. Calling the accent a caret passes in casual talk, but editors and linguists will read it as a slip.
- 5A háček ⟨ ˇ ⟩, the inverted-v mark written above a letter in languages such as Czech.
The caret over the S in 'Škoda' changes the sound to 'sh.'
Her surname keeps its caret over the z even on her American paperwork.
Similarcaron
Note
The same loose borrowing as the circumflex use, applied to the inverted mark, and it has a real history in print. Bohumil Emil Mikula's Progressive Czech (1948) teaches "the caret (ˇ), háček" for the soft consonants. Michael Shapiro's The Sense of Change (1991) pairs it with "hook." When writing about Czech today, háček is the safer name.
Less common meaning
- 6kuh-RET/kəˈɹɛt/The hawksbill, a sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) with a narrow, hooked beak and overlapping, patterned shell plates.
The ship's log noted that the crew took a caret off the reef and sold its shell in port.
Island traders prized carets for the patterned plates of their shells.
Note
A different word that only shares the spelling: it comes from French caret, not from the Latin behind the insertion mark. It names the hawksbill, the turtle valued for its patterned shell, and now sounds distinctly old-fashioned. In modern English, say hawksbill. Using caret for the animal will puzzle most readers unless the context is historical.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of caret apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
From the Latin caret ("it lacks"), the third-person singular present active indicative form of careō ("I lack").
From French caret.