circumflex
/ˈsɜː.kəmˌflɛks/
"circumflex" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“circumflex” is uncommon English (frequency #73,069 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,069
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-circumflex · circumflex · English
circumflex · rank #73,069 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,069
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH clamber
Nearest frequency peer: clamber (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “circumflex”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- choreograph…
choreographic
26,938 corpus weight
- Christiania
Christiania
26,937 corpus weight
- circumflex
circumflex
26,932 corpus weight
- clamber
clamber
26,931 corpus weight
- clanking
clanking
26,930 corpus weight
- claptrap
claptrap
26,929 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “circumflex” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | circumflex |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɜː.kəmˌflɛks/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #73,069 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “circumflex” in English
Rare enough to double-check
circumflex is uncommon English at frequency #73,069 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɜː.kəmˌflɛks/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "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.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for circumflex, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin circumflexus (“bent about”), calqued from Ancient Greek περισπώμενος (perispṓmenos, “drawn around”). The correct English form is circumflex, spelled C-I-R-C-U-M-F-L-E-X.
Definition
- 1A 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.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin circumflexus (“bent about”), calqued from Ancient Greek περισπώμενος (perispṓmenos, “drawn around”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "circumflex", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).