caret
/ˈkæɹ.ɪt/noun
caret is spelled C-A-R-E-T: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 105,204th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, caret means “A mark ⟨ ‸ ⟩ used by writers and proofreaders to indicate that something is to be inserted at that point” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of caret is carets.
How many letters and syllables are in caret?
| Letters | 5: C-A-R-E-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 12 million words; the 105,204th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is caret?
Caret appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 105,204th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce caret?
- UK /ˈkæɹ.ɪt/
- UK /ˈkæɹ.ət/
- US /ˈkæɹ.ɪt/
As a noun (“A kind of turtle, the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata)”): /kəˈɹɛt/, /ˈkæɹ.ɪt/, /ˈkæɹ.ət/.
Caret has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-caret.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-caret2.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-caret3.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with caret?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as caret from its last stressed vowel (/æɹɪt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: trace, react, cater, crate, carte, creat, acter.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of caret
- carets plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does caret mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A mark ⟨ ‸ ⟩ used by writers and proofreaders to indicate that something is to be inserted at that point.
- 2
An exponentiation symbol or operator ⟨＾⟩.
- 3
An indicator, often a blinking line or bar and usually called a cursor, indicating where the next insertion or other edit will take place.
- 4
nonstandardA circumflex ⟨ ˆ ⟩.
- 5
nonstandardA háček ⟨ ˇ ⟩.
The caret (ˇ), háček, is used over the following consonants: c, d, n, t, r, s, and z to indicate the soft sound. The caret (ˇ) is also used over the vowel e (See Pronunciation II, b, p, v).
- 6
archaicA kind of turtle, the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Caret in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense symbol:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | circonflexe |
| German | Einschaltungszeichen, Zirkumflex, Dach, Einfügezeichen, Exponent-Operator |
| Portuguese | acento circunflexo |
| Spanish | signo de intercalación |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does caret come from?
From the Latin caret (“it lacks”), the third-person singular present active indicative form of careō (“to lack”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).