Circumflex

The circumflex is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus 'bent around' – a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη (perispōménē). The circumflex in the Latin script is chevron-shaped ( ˆ ), while the Greek circumflex may be displayed either like a tilde (˜) or like an inverted breve ( ̑).

In English the circumflex, like other diacritics, is sometimes retained on loanwords that used it in the original language (for example, rôle).

The diacritic is also used in mathematics, where it is typically called a hat or roof.