tilde

[til-duh]

noun

1. Phonetics, Orthography.,  a diacritic (~) placed over an n, as in Spanish mañana, to indicate a palatal nasal sound or over a vowel, as in Portuguese são, to indicate nasalization.

2. swung dash.

3. Mathematics.,  a symbol (∼) indicating equivalency or similarity between two values.

4. Logic.,  a similar symbol indicating negation.

tilde

/ ˈtɪldə /

noun

1. the diacritical mark (~) placed over a letter to indicate a palatal nasal consonant, as in Spanish señor. This symbol is also used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent any nasalized vowel

Word History and Origins

Origin of tilde¹

1860–65; < Spanish < Latin titulus superscription. See title

Word History and Origins

Origin of tilde¹

C19: from Spanish, from Latin titulus title, superscription

Example Sentences

When media used his full name, they omitted the tilde in “Cañedo.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Batiste, who is not a native Spanish speaker, was nervous about navigating the tildes and the rolling Rs.

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At the beginning of each episode, Saldaña's name is shown with a tilde over the n.

Read more on Reuters

For the same reason the council also struck down the bill's proposal to allow non-French so-called diacritical marks such as the tilde, in official documents.

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While the tilde also never reached critical mass, cutesy emoji faces achieved global dominance, even among business associates.

Read more on New York Times