People call a wall to wall covering as a carpet and prefer to call smaller pieces that are either kept in the center of a room or below a bed as rugs.
Difference between rug an dcarpet.
Rugs on the other hand tend to be smaller than the square footage of the room by a lot or a little and are not affixed to the floor.
This is the reason you cannot flatly say that a rug is just another word for a carpet and you cannot use these words as a synonym to each other.
Although rugs do the same a rug is entirely not the same item as carpet.
A rug is smaller than a carpet.
In other words a rug is less than 2m 6 5 feet in length.
A rug vs carpet rug and carpet are terms that are used interchangeably.
The size difference can be put in the following manner as well.
Colloquially at least in the south the difference between a rug and a carpet seems to be movability.
Considering rug vs carpet there is steep difference between durability utility and portability of both the products.
The word rug has come to mean a smaller item as in an area rug that is around 4 feet by 6 feet or less while the word carpet reflects bigger items as in an area carpet that are over 4 feet wide and 6 feet long.
In america a carpet is a floor covering that is laid wall to wall and rugs cover only a small area or they are area specific.