Latin small letter e with circumflex

Use a circumflex dead key, then press e. A dead key holds the ^ until the next letter; pressing ^ as an ordinary key is a different operation.

In Microsoft Word and Outlook, press Ctrl+Shift+^, release, then e. In Word on Windows, type 00EA and press Alt+X, or hold Alt and type 0234 on the numeric keypad. On Linux with Compose configured, press Compose, ^, then e. These application- and layout-specific instructions were documented as of 2026-09-02.

What does ê mean in a word?

Its job depends on the language. In French, ê is an accented e whose pronunciation depends on the word. Vietnamese treats ê as a letter that can take an additional tone mark. Portuguese uses the circumflex to mark a stressed e sound; Welsh uses it to mark a long vowel.

Why can identical-looking ê letters fail to match?

They may use different sequences underneath. ê can be stored as one character, or as e followed by a combining circumflex mark. They can look the same, but a literal sequence comparison may distinguish them. Unicode normalization puts equivalent sequences into a consistent form before exact matching; removing the accent changes the spelling.