caret

a writer’s and a proofreader’s mark: A caret is a symbol that is used to indicate where material is to be inserted in a document.
Not to be confused with:carat – the weight of precious stones, especially diamonds: The stone in her engagement ring was over two carats.karat – proportion of pure gold used with an alloy: Her earrings were made of 24 karat gold.

car·et

C0111400 (kăr′ĭt)n. A proofreading symbol (^) used to indicate where something is to be inserted in a line of printed or written matter.

[Latin, there is lacking, third person sing. present tense of carēre, to lack; see kes- in Indo-European roots.]

caret

(ˈkærɪt) n (Journalism & Publishing) a symbol (⁁) used to indicate the place in written or printed matter at which something is to be inserted[C17: from Latin, literally: there is missing, from carēre to lack]

car•et

(ˈkær ɪt)

n. a mark (^) made in written or printed matter to show the place where something is to be inserted. [1700–10; < Latin caret (there) is lacking or wanting]

Thesaurus

Noun

caret - a mark used by an author or editor to indicate where something is to be inserted into a textmark - a written or printed symbol (as for punctuation); "his answer was just a punctuation mark"

Translations

caret

[′kar·ət] (graphic arts) A printed or written character having the form of an inverted V.

caret

^

Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; ITU-T: circumflex.Rare: chevron; INTERCAL: shark (or shark-fin); to the ("tothe power of"); fang; pointer (in Pascal).

caret

(1) A vertical, flashing bar used as a pointer for entering text. See caret browsing.

(2) The small up-facing arrow on the "6" key (shift-6) on a typewriter keyboard. Also called a "hat," it is used as a symbol for several different operations. The mathematical expression 2^12 means 2 to the 12th power. It is also used as an exclusive OR operator (see XOR), and it is sometimes found as a symbol for the Control key; for example, ^Y means Ctrl-Y.

The Caret

Sitting like a hat on the "6" key, the caret has become a multi-purpose symbol.

The Control Key

This screen shot from WordStar, a popular word processor in the 1980s, shows the command menu at the top. All commands were initiated by holding down the Control key, which was symbolized by the caret (^).

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Words related to caret

noun a mark used by an author or editor to indicate where something is to be inserted into a text

Related Words