circumflex

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː.kəmˌflɛks/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝ.kəmˌflɛks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

circumflex (plural circumflexes)

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.

   Synonym: circumflex accent

Translations

circumflex accent

• Afrikaans: sirkumfleks, kappie
• Catalan: circumflex m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 抑揚音符, 抑扬音符 (yìyáng yīnfú)

• Czech: stříška (cs) f, vokáň
• Danish: cirkumfleks c
• Dutch: accent circonflexe (nl) n, circonflexe (nl) m, circumflex (nl) m, dakje (nl) n (informal)
• Esperanto: cirkumflekso, ĉapelo
• Finnish: sirkumfleksi (fi)
• French: circonflexe (fr) m, accent circonflexe (fr) m
• Galician: circunflexo m
• German: (general) Zirkumflex (de) m; (chiefly of French) Accent circonflexe (de) m; (informal) Dach (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: περισπωμένη f (perispōménē), ὀξύβαρις f (oxúbaris)

• Hebrew: גַּג‎ (he) m (gag)
• Hungarian: kúpos ékezet, hajtott ékezet, csúcsos ékezet, circumflex, (somewhat informal) háztető (hu)
• Icelandic: hattur (is) m
• Indonesian: sirkumfleks (id)

• Irish: cuairín m
• Italian: accento circonflesso m, circonflesso m
• Japanese: サーカムフレックス (sākamufurekkusu)
• Latvian: cirkumflekss
• Malay: sirkumfleks
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: cirkumfleks (no) m, sirkumfleks (no) m, accent circonflexe m

  Nynorsk: cirkumfleks m, sirkumfleks m, accent circonflexe m (French)

• Polish: daszek (pl) m
• Portuguese: circunflexo (pt) m, acento circunflexo m
• Russian: циркумфле́кс (ru) m (cirkumfléks)
• Slovak: vokáň, cirkumflex m
• Spanish: circunflejo (es) m
• Swedish: cirkumflex (sv) c
• Tagalog: pakupya
• Turkish: sirkonfleks
• Vietnamese: dấu mũ
• Volapük: sirkumfleg
• Welsh: to bach m, acen grom f, hirnod m
• West Frisian: breedteken n

Adjective

circumflex

1. Having a circumflex mark.

   ê is e circumflex.

2. Curving around.

   The circumflex coronary artery

Translations

with circumflex accent

• Catalan: circumflex
• Finnish: sirkumfleksi- (fi)
• French: circonflexe (fr)
• Ido: circuflexio
• Italian: circonflesso

• Ligurian: circonflèsso
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: please add this translation if you can

• Portuguese: circunflexo (pt)
• Spanish: circunflejo (es)
• Vietnamese: mũ (vi)
• Volapük: sirkumflegik

curving around

• Finnish: kiertävä (fi)
• Italian: circonflesso, arcuato (it), incurvato (it)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: please add this translation if you can

• Portuguese: circunflexo (pt)
• Spanish: circunflejo (es)

Verb

circumflex (third-person singular simple present circumflexes, present participle circumflexing, simple past and past participle circumflexed)

1. To mark or pronounce with a circumflex.

   to circumflex a syllable

   • 1791, John Walker, Critical Pronouncing Dictionary:

     those words […] circumflexed on the last syllabe

Translations

to mark or pronounce with circumflex

• Finnish: merkitä sirkumfleksilla (to mark)

• Italian: circonflettere
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• circumflex on Wikipedia.Wikipedia