the mark placed over a vowel in some languages to show how it should be pronounced, as over the o in rôle 音调符号（标在元音字母上表发音，如 rôle 一词中 o 字母上的符号） Word Originlate 16th cent.: from Latin circumflexus (from circum ‘around, about’ + flectere ‘to bend’), translating Greek perispōmenos ‘drawn around’.