What does Carat mean and how much does one actually weigh? The word "Carat" comes from the Greek name of a seed, which was first used in ancient times as a measure of weight. A carat weighs seven-thousandths of an ounce, and about 142 of them are needed to make a single ounce. The carat is divided into 100 points, so that when a woman says her diamond is a quarter of a carat, for example, she means it is 25 points. |