consisting of, indicated by, or bearing the mark ^, ˘, or ~, placed over a vowel symbol in some languages to show that the vowel or the syllable containing it is pronounced in a certain way, as, in French, that the vowel so marked is of a certain quality and long, in Albanian, that the vowel is nasalized and stressed, or, in Classical Greek, that the syllable bears the word accent and is pronounced, according to the ancient grammarians, with a rise and fall in pitch.
2.
pronounced with or characterized by the quality, quantity, stress, or pitch indicated by such a mark.
3.
bending or winding around.
–noun
4.
a circumflex mark or accent.
–verb (used with object)
5.
to bend around.
[Origin: 1555–65; < L circumflexus, equiv. to circum-circum-+ flexus, ptp. of flectere to bend; see flex]
cir·cum·flexAudio Help (sûr'kəm-flěks') Pronunciation Key
n.
Any of several marks, especially ( ^ ), used over a vowel in certain languages or in phonetic keys to indicate quality of pronunciation.
adj.
Having this mark.
Curving around: a circumflex blood vessel.
[From Latin circumflexus, bent around, circumflex, past participle of circumflectere, to bend around : circum-, circum- + flectere, to bend.]
c.1577, from L. circumflexus, "bent about," pp. of circumflectere, used as a loan-tr. of Gk. perispomenos, lit. "drawn-around," with reference to shape.
Cir"cum*flect\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Circumflected; p. pr. & vb. n. Circumflecting.] [L. circumflectere. See Circumflex.]1. To bend around. 2. To mark with the circumflex accent, as a vowel. [R.]
Cir"cum*flex\, n. [L. circumflexus a bending round, fr. circumflectere, circumflexum, to bend or turn about; circum + flectere to bend. See Flexible.]1. A wave of the voice embracing both a rise and fall or a fall and a rise on the same a syllable. --Walker. 2. 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.
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