Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💎 Gem weight 🥇 Gold purity
carat

carat

4 5.1
A unit that shows how much pure gold is in a metal, with 24 meaning pure gold
  • noun
  • /ˈkærət/
  • UK
: quilate
  • - This is an 18 carat gold watch.
  • carat gold
  • 24-carat
  • 22-carat

The gold in them days was all nine carat over in England.

Examples

  • Before he moved to California, he'd almost caused a scandal when he gave her a 14-carat gold crucifix for her Confirmation.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Depending on the carat and clarity, it could fetch upward of $2,000 at a jewelry store in the U.S.

    Blog text (10)

  • It's 14 carat, it's antique.

    Dolan's Cadillac (2009)

  • " Fourteen carat," she said.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • 18-carat gold if they make them.

    Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

  • I bet it's pure 14-carat gold in there.

    Big Trouble (2002)

  • This is 24-carat gold.

    Triangle of Sadness (2022)

  • Fourteen-carat gold.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • In this case, the bodywork of my Rolls Royce is 18-carat gold.

    Goldfinger (1964)

  • This beautiful necklace is made of 18 carat gold, ensuring its quality.

Synonyms

karat
vscarat
  • Specialized
22 6.0

A measure that shows how pure gold is on a scale up to 24, where 24 means pure

is the alternate spelling of the same unit
kt
vscarat
  • Specialized
1 8.6

A measure of how much pure gold is in a piece of metal, with 24 meaning pure gold

is the full written form rather than the shortened abbreviation

Surface Forms

carat singular
carats plural

Etymology

Carat also came to mean a 'part' of gold because gold was once divided into 24 equal carats to show how much was pure; each carat was one of those parts. That's why 24-carat gold is pure gold and a higher carat number means purer gold.