Carat or karat?
carat is a noun meaning “A metric unit of mass equal to exactly 200 mg, chiefly used for measuring…”; karat is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of carat”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) carat is about 3.3 times as common as karat.
What is the difference between carat and karat?
| carat | karat | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A metric unit of mass equal to exactly 200 mg, chiefly used for measuring precious stones and pearls Any of several small units of mass used for measuring precious stones and pearls, equivalent to 189–212 mg | USAlternative spelling of carat |
| Example | 18-carat gold is 75% gold by mass. 24-carat gold is pure | none recorded |
| Forms | carats | karats |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkæ.ɹət/ /ˈkɛɹ.ət/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: carat and karat in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of carat and karat
carat
- 1
A metric unit of mass equal to exactly 200 mg, chiefly used for measuring precious stones and pearls
- 2
Any of several small units of mass used for measuring precious stones and pearls, equivalent to 189–212 mg
- 3
A 24-point scale used to measure the purity of gold
18-carat gold is 75% gold by mass. 24-carat gold is pure
karat
- 1
USAlternative spelling of carat
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, carat or karat?
carat appears 1.4 times per million words; karat about once in every 2 million words.
carat 1.4 times per million wordskarat about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search carat vs karat?
“carat vs karat” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 120 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“karat vs carat”, “carat or karat”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.