Other forms: carets
A caret is a little mark that looks like a line drawing of a roof. You use a caret when you're editing a text, to show where something should be inserted.
The word caret comes into English in the 17th century — from the Latin word "is lacking.” It was originally used to indicate corrections to the typesetter, and it's not surprising that the word appears when printing presses were in full swing. Don't confuse this caret with its homonyms — the karat that measures the purity of gold, or the carat that tells you the weight of your diamonds, or the carrot that's a crunchy orange vegetable.