/serr"keuhm fleks'/ , adj.
1. consisting of, indicated by, or bearing the mark ^ 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.
n.
4. a circumflex mark or accent.
v.t.
5. to bend around.
[ 1555-65; circumflexus, equiv. to circum- CIRCUM- + flexus, ptp. of flectere to bend; see FLEX ]