A carrot is a crunchy orange vegetable that grows underground, with feathery green leaves poking up above the soil. The part you eat is actually the plant's root, which stores energy and nutrients. Carrots taste slightly sweet and can be eaten raw as a snack, shredded into salads, or cooked in soups and stews.

Carrots are famous for containing lots of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes and skin healthy. You've probably heard people say that carrots are good for your eyesight, and there's truth to that: the vitamin A in carrots helps your eyes work properly, especially in dim light.

The word carrot also appears in the phrase carrot and stick, which describes a strategy of offering rewards and consequences to motivate someone. The image comes from dangling a carrot in front of a donkey to make it walk forward: the carrot is the reward that encourages good behavior. When a teacher offers extra recess for good work but assigns extra homework for poor effort, that's using both the carrot (the reward) and the stick (the consequence).