Tilde

The tilde ( ˜ or ~; pronounced /ˈtɪldə/) is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning a title or superscription, though the term “tilde” has evolved in that language and now has a different meaning in linguistics. The tilde is colloquially known as a 'squiggly' by people who do not know its name. It was originally written over a letter as a mark of abbreviation, but has since acquir... more

The tilde ( ˜ or ~; pronounced /ˈtɪldə/) is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning a title or superscription, though the term “tilde” has evolved in that language and now has a different meaning in linguistics. The tilde is colloquially known as a 'squiggly' by people who do not know its name. It was originally written over a letter as a mark of abbreviation, but has since acquired a number of other uses as a diacritic mark or a character in its own right, and there are a number of Unicode characters for these different roles. In the latter capacity (especially in lexicography), the tilde or swung dash (⁓) is used in dictionaries to indicate the omission of the entry word. In languages, the tilde is used as a diacritical mark ( ˜ ) placed over a letter to indicate a change in pronunciation, such as nasalization. It was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, as a variant of the circumflex accent,... less