CARAT-WEIGHT

Carat is the term used to describe the weight of a diamond or any gemstone. Diamonds can range in size from a fraction of a carat to several carats. Larger stones are much more rare and therefore can be very expensive. Also, in jewelry pieces with more than one diamond, the carats may be desribed in terms of total carat weight (TW). This is the combined weight of all the stones in the piece. Since larger sized diamonds are rare, a single 2-carat diamond will cost much more than two 1-carat diamonds.