A carat is a unit of
weight for diamonds, other gemstones, and pearls. One carat
equals 200 milligrams (0.200 grams).
A caret is a
proofreader's mark showing where something needs to be inserted
in a document. It shaped like a tiny pitched roof ^.
A karat is a
measure of purity when referring to gold. You may have seen
different types of jewelry referred to as 14-karat gold or
18-karat gold. Pure gold is known as 24-karat gold. Gold is a
fairly soft metal, so it is not often used to make jewelry.
Jewelry made of pure gold can be easily bent and scratched, so
gold is often mixed with other metals, such as copper or silver,
to form an alloy that can be used to make jewelry. A karat is
equal to 1/24 pure gold, so an 18-karat gold ring would be made
with 18 parts gold and 6 parts of another metal.
The orange vegetable carrot, that grows down into the ground is completely
unrelated.