Circumflex

//ˈsɜː.kəmˌflɛks// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A diacritical mark (ˆ) placed over a vowel in the orthography or transliteration of many languages to change its pronunciation; while in some other languages over a consonant.
  2. 2
    a diacritical mark (^) placed above a vowel in some languages to indicate a special phonetic quality wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To mark or pronounce with a circumflex.

    "to circumflex a syllable"

  2. 2
    To arch. obsolete

    "A venerable old man sitting in a chaire, with a severe aspect, wrinkled forehead, circumflex't eie-browes, great white curled beard."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having a circumflex mark.

    "ê is e circumflex."

  2. 2
    Curving around.

    "The circumflex coronary artery"

Synonyms

All synonyms
ambientcaretcirclingcircumferentialcircumflex accentembracing

Example

More examples

"People that don't put a circumflex accent on "râler" piss me off."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin circumflexus (“bent about”), calqued from Ancient Greek περισπώμενος (perispṓmenos, “drawn around”).

Related phrases

inverted circumflex

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.