Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several marks, especially ( ^ ), used over a vowel in certain languages or in phonetic keys to indicate quality of pronunciation.
  • adjective Having this mark.
  • adjective Curving around.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Moved or turned round.
  • Curved; winding about: used in anatomy in the specific description of several parts. See below.
  • Pronounced with or indicating the tone called circumflex.
  • Marked with the accentual sign designating such pronunciation.
  • Of the thigh, one of two branches, anterior and posterior, of the profunda femoris artery, supplying muscles of the thigh.
  • noun 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.
  • noun The sign used to mark a vowel so accented.
  • noun The same mark (ˆ, ⌢, ˜) used as the sign of a long vowel in certain languages, and as a diacritical mark in phonetic notation.
  • noun In elocution, a combined rising and falling or falling and rising inflection on a word or syllable, to express surprise, mockery, etc.
  • To pronounce with the accent or intonation called the circumflex.
  • To mark or designate with the sign of such accentuation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A wave of the voice embracing both a rise and fall or a fall and a rise on the same a syllable.
  • noun 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.
  • adjective rare Moving or turning round; circuitous.
  • adjective (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.
  • transitive verb To mark or pronounce with a circumflex.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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.
  • adjective Having this mark.
  • adjective Curving around

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a diacritical mark (^) placed above a vowel in some languages to indicate a special phonetic quality

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin circumflexus, bent around, circumflex, past participle of circumflectere, to bend around : circum-, circum- + flectere, to bend.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin circumflexus ("bent about"), which is the past participle of circumflectere and a calque of Ancient Greek περισπώμενος (perispomenos, "drawn around").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Circumflex Accent: crêpe

    December 19, 2006

  • This word always felt dirty to me.

    December 19, 2006

  • Then I'd suggest using the French version, which sounds sexier: circonflexe.

    December 19, 2006

  • When someone flexes their arms, arcing downward in the shape of a circle?

    I know, corny. Thought of this earlier and couldn't resist..

    July 28, 2007

  • I like this word, and I like diacritical too.

    Circumflex. Circumflex.

    April 30, 2008

  • I love the emoticon in this definition from the Century: "3. The same mark (ˆ, ⌢, ˜) used as the sign of a long vowel in certain languages, and as a diacritical mark in phonetic notation."

    June 29, 2011

  • Don't be sad, roundface.

    June 29, 2011

  • Under "Same Context": "heheh" ?

    Oh, yeah.

    June 30, 2011

  • Maybe it's a circumspect circumflex.

    June 30, 2011