tilde

Definition

A diacritical mark ⟨˜⟩ placed above a letter to modify its pronunciation.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish tilde, from Latin titulus (“superscript”) or from tildar. Doublet of titer/titre, title, titlo, tittle, and titulus. Compare Portuguese til.

Example Sentences

• "California, like several other states, prohibits the use of diacritical marks or accents on official documents. That means no tilde (~), no accent grave (`), no umlaut (¨) and certainly no cedilla (¸)."
• "The tilde was used similarly in Portuguese on vowels to show that the letter bearing the tilde should be pronounced nasally."
• "swung dash A stock keyboard character, used in mathematics as the sign of similarity (a ~ b) and in lexicography as a sign of repetition. The same sign has been used in symbolic logic to indicate negation, but to avoid confusion, the angular negation symbol (¬) is preferred. Not to be confused with the tilde."

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