A soft textile flooring that is wall-to-wall and secured down–unlike rugs, though many rugs, in particular Oriental or Persian rugs, are often referred to as carpets. When we say ‘to carpet the floor’ we mean to make it soft, not necessarily to cover it wall to wall.
Carpets came about through the technology of the English industrial revolution, which discovered mechanised techniques that extended the potential of rugs and revolutionised the cost structure; from being the province of royalty and the very wealthy, soft flooring became so widely available that there are now vey few ‘western’ style homes without it. Axminster and Wilton weaves are examples of this.