Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
A dipping tone.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, phonology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any diacritic obtained by rotating a circumflex (ˆ) 180°.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: media, publishing, typography
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A háček.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From its earliest attested use as an idiomatic phrase in 1810, inverted circumflex was first used to denote a dipping tone — an inversion of the peaking tone denoted by ⟨ ͂⟩, the Ancient Greek περισπωμένη (perispōménē), commonly translated as “circumflex” — thence the name was applied to diacritics which marked such a dipping tone and, by extension, other tones to which it was suited; finally, due to such a diacritic’s resemblance to the háček, the name came to be applied to it as well.
