It is used to transliterate Chinese, Persian, and Ukrainian and presents an open mid-back unrounded pharynhotic vowel.

The circumflex changes the pronunciation of "e" to be /ɛː/ (or /æː/ if the succeeding consonant is either a dorsal or a liquid) In the Pinyin romanization of Standard Mandarin Chinese, ê represents /ɛ/.

The circumflex occurs only if ê is the only vowel in a syllable: ề /ɛ̂/ (诶; 誒; "eh!").

Ê is used in UNGEGN romanization system for Khmer to represent /ae/ and /ɛː/, for example Khmêr (ខ្មែរ [kʰmae]) and Dângrêk Mountains (ដងរែក [ɗɑːŋrɛːk]).

In Vietnamese phonology, diacritics can be added to form five forms to represent five tones of ê: In Welsh, ê represents long stressed e [eː] if the vowel would otherwise be pronounced as short [ɛ]: llên [ɬeːn] "literature", as opposed to llen [ɬɛn] "curtain", or gêm [ɡeːm] "game", as opposed to gem [ɡɛm] "gem, jewel".

In Popido, a fictitious dialect of Esperanto made by Manuel Halvelik for use in literature, ê represents /ə/.