carat

See also: carât

English

Alternative forms

• (unit of purity): karat, k (North America)

Etymology

From Middle French carat, from Italian carato, from Arabic قِيرَاط (qīrāṭ, “carat, similarly small units such as inches”), from Ancient Greek κεράτιον (kerátion, “hornlet, carob seed”), from κέρας (kéras, “horn”) + -ιον (-ion, “forming diminutives”). Doublet of karat and quilate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹ.ət/
• Rhymes: -æɹət
• Homophones: karat, carrot, caret (weak vowel merger)

Noun

carat (plural carats)

1. A metric unit of mass equal to exactly 200 mg, chiefly used for measuring precious stones and pearls .

   Meronym: grain

2. (historical) 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.

Hyponyms

• metric carat (SI unit equal to 0.2 g exactly), quilate (historical Iberian and Latin American contexts)

Derived terms

• metric carat

Translations

mass

• Arabic: قِيرَاط m (qīrāṭ)

  Hijazi Arabic: قِيراط m (gīrāṭ)

• Bulgarian: карат (bg) m (karat)
• Catalan: quirat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 克拉 (zh) (kèlā)

• Czech: karát (cs) m
• Dutch: karaat (nl) n
• Esperanto: karato
• Finnish: karaatti (fi)
• French: carat (fr) m
• Galician: quilate m
• German: Karat (de) n
• Greek: καράτι (el) n (karáti)
• Hebrew: קראט m (qarat')
• Hungarian: karát (hu)
• Indonesian: karat (id)
• Italian: carato (it) m
• Japanese: カラット (karatto)
• Khmer: ការាត់ (km) (kaarat)
• Korean: 캐럿 (kaereot)
• Maltese: karat
• Persian: قیراط (fa) (qirât)
• Polish: karat (pl) m
• Portuguese: quilate (pt) m
• Russian: кара́т (ru) m (karát)
• Sicilian: caratu (scn) m
• Slovak: karát m
• Spanish: quilate (es) m
• Swedish: karat (sv) c
• Thai: กะรัต (th) (gà-ràt)

measure of the purity of gold

• Armenian: կարատ (hy) (karat)
• Belarusian: кара́т m (karát)
• Bulgarian: карат (bg) m (karat)
• Burmese: ကရက် (my) (ka.rak)
• Catalan: quirat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 克拉 (zh) (kèlā)

• Czech: karát (cs) m
• Dutch: karaat (nl) n
• Esperanto: karato
• Finnish: karaatti (fi)
• French: carat (fr) m
• Galician: quilate m
• German: Karat (de) n
• Greek: καράτι (el) n (karáti)
• Hebrew: קראט m (qarat')
• Hungarian: karát (hu)
• Indonesian: karat (id)
• Italian: carato (it) m
• Japanese: カラット (karatto)
• Korean: 캐럿 (kaereot)
• Maltese: karat
• Polish: karat (pl) m
• Portuguese: quilate (pt) m
• Russian: кара́т (ru) m (karát)
• Sicilian: caratu (scn) m
• Slovak: karát m
• Spanish: quilate (es) m
• Swedish: karat (sv) c
• Tagalog: kilatis (tl)
• Ukrainian: кара́т m (karát)
• Vietnamese: ca ra, cà rá (vi), cara

Anagrams

• ATRAC, Carta

French

Noun

carat m (plural carats)

1. carat

Further reading

• “carat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

First known attestation in 1360 in the plural as quarais. Attested in the singular as quaret at least as early as 1433. Spellings with an initial c- first attested 1367.

Noun

carat m (plural caras or caraz)

1. carat (measure of purity of gold)

Descendants

• → English: carat

Middle Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkarəd/

Noun

carat

1. genitive singular/plural of cara (“friend; relative”)

Mutation

Middle Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
carat	charat	carat pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkarad]

Noun

carat

1. genitive singular/dual/plural of cara

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
carat	charat	carat pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French carat.

Noun

carat n (plural carate)

1. carat, karat

Declension

Declension of carat

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) carat	caratul	(niște) carate	caratele
genitive/dative	(unui) carat	caratului	(unor) carate	caratelor
vocative	caratule		caratelor