The caret () is a V-shaped

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics' ...

, usually inverted and sometimes extended, used in

proofreading Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or an electronic copy of a publication to find and correct reproduction errors of text or art. Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication. Professional Tradition ...

and

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

to indicate that additional material needs to be inserted at the point indicated in the text. The same symbol is also used as a diacritical mark modifying another character (as in ), for which purpose it is known as a

circumflex The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...

Usage

The caret was originally and continues to be used in handwritten form as a

mark to indicate where a punctuation mark, word, or phrase should be inserted into a document. The term comes from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

word , "it lacks", from , "to lack; to be separated from; to be free from". The caret symbol can be written just below the line of text for a punctuation mark at low line position, such as a

comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...

, or just above the line of text as an inverted caret () for a character at a higher line position, such as an

apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one ...

, or in either position to indicate insertion of a letter, word or phrase; the material to be inserted may be placed inside the caret, in the margin, or above the line. File:Image of carets telling reader to insert a comma, an apostrophe, and quotation marks.png, Carets telling reader to insert a comma, an apostrophe, and quotation marks. File:Image of caret telling a reader to insert a letter.png, Caret telling a reader to insert a letter. File:Image of caret telling reader to insert a word.png, Caret telling reader to insert a word. File:Image of caret telling reader to change a word.png, Caret telling reader to change a word.

References

{{navbox punctuation Typographical symbols Copy editing