Carabiner
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A carabiner or karabiner (colloquially, crab, krab, or 'biner) is a gated connector: a metal loop with a usually sprung gate designed as a connector that can quickly and reversibly join together components in safety-critical systems; for example, a common use is to attach a rope to a fixed anchor.
Carabiners are widely used in sports requiring ropework, such climbing, caving, canyoning, and sailing, and in industrial rope access work, such as construction or window cleaning.
Carabiners used in climbing tend to be lighter and faster to use than carabiners used in industry. For recreational climbing, almost all carabiners are made from aluminium. For rope rescues and industrial uses, where weight is not a big factor and larger working loads are encountered, steel carabiners are commonly used. Some carabiners used in industry do not have a sprung swinging gate but have a screw shut gate that generally can only be opened and closed using a special tool; using such a carabiner when rock climbing would be unacceptable because carabiners must be capable of operation quickly and with one hand.
Note that, in German, "Karabiner" means "carbine" (a short rifle). The German term for a Carabiner is "Karabinerhaken".
Mountaineering
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When sold for use in climbing in Europe carabiners must conform to standard EN 12275:1998 "Mountaineering equipment - Connectors - Safety requirements and test methods" which governs testing protocols, rated strengths, and markings.
There are broadly two sorts of carabiner used in climbing, with some subdivision within those: non-locking carabiners and locking carabiners. Non-locking carabiners are the simplest, there is a sprung swinging gate that can be opened to insert or remove a rope, webbing sling, or other climbing hardware. The gate will snap shut under pressure of the spring. Locking carabiners have the same general shape as non-locking carabiners, but have an additional sleeve around the gate. The sleeve can be released along the gate and when it is at one end of the gate the gate cannot be opened (except by releasing the sleeve and moving it to the other end of the gate). This provides security against the carabiner opening accidentally, for example if struck against the rock or if caught in a loop of rope. The sleeve can either be mounted on a screw thread or by a more complicated auto-lock system, which snaps back into place when the gate shuts.de:Karabinerhaken pl:Karabinek (wspinaczka)