circumflex

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several marks, especially ( ^ ), used over a vowel in certain languages or in phonetic keys to indicate quality of pronunciation.
2. adj. Having this mark.
3. adj. Curving around: a circumflex blood vessel.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Moved or turned round.
2. Curved; winding about: used in anatomy in the specific description of several parts. See below.
3. Pronounced with or indicating the tone called circumflex.
4. Marked with the accentual sign designating such pronunciation.
5. Of the thigh, one of two branches, anterior and posterior, of the profunda femoris artery, supplying muscles of the thigh.
6. n. A certain accent or tone of voice in the utterance of a syllable, consisting in a higher or acute tone followed by a lower or grave tone within the same syllable. This tone is recognized as belonging to certain syllables in Greek, in Latin, and in Sanskrit; in the first two languages it is limited to long vowels.
7. n. The sign used to mark a vowel so accented. It is theoretically made by combining the sign for acute tone and that for grave, and has various forms, as ˆ, or ⌢, or ˜.
8. n. The same mark (ˆ, ⌢, ˜) used as the sign of a long vowel in certain languages, and as a diacritical mark in phonetic notation.
9. n. In elocution, a combined rising and falling or falling and rising inflection on a word or syllable, to express surprise, mockery, etc.
10. To pronounce with the accent or intonation called the circumflex.
11. To mark or designate with the sign of such accentuation.

Wiktionary

1. n. orthography A diacritical mark: 〈ˆ〉 placed over a vowel in certain languages to change its pronunciation; also used in combination with certain consonants in Esperanto to create additional letters.
2. adj. Having this mark.
3. adj. Curving around

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A wave of the voice embracing both a rise and fall or a fall and a rise on the same a syllable.
2. n. A character, or accent, denoting in Greek a rise and of the voice on the same long syllable, marked thus [~ or �]; and in Latin and some other languages, denoting a long and contracted syllable, marked [� or ^]. See Accent, n., 2.
3. v. To mark or pronounce with a circumflex.
4. adj. rare Moving or turning round; circuitous.
5. adj. (Anat.) Curved circularly; -- applied to several arteries of the hip and thigh, to arteries, veins, and a nerve of the shoulder, and to other parts.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a diacritical mark (^) placed above a vowel in some languages to indicate a special phonetic quality