tilde
English
Etymology
Borrowed from SpanishCategory:English terms borrowed from Spanish#TILDECategory:English terms derived from Spanish#TILDE tilde, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#TILDE titulus (“superscript”) or from tildar. Doublet of titer/titre, title, titlo, tittle, and titulusCategory:English doublets#TILDE. Compare Portuguese til.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtɪldə/, /ˈtɪldi/Category:English 2-syllable words#TILDECategory:English 2-syllable words#TILDECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#TILDE
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#TILDEAudio (US): (file)
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#TILDEAudio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪldəCategory:Rhymes:English/ɪldə#TILDECategory:Rhymes:English/ɪldə/2 syllables#TILDE
Noun
tilde (plural tildes)Category:English lemmas#TILDECategory:English nouns#TILDECategory:English countable nouns#TILDECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
- A diacritical mark ⟨˜⟩ placed above a letter to modify its pronunciation.
- In Spanish, ⟨ñ⟩ is a palatalized ⟨n⟩, for example in ⟨cañón⟩.
- 2015 April 11, Tovin Lapan, “California birth certificates and accents: O’Connor alright, Ramón and José is not”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 4 April 2025:
- 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 (¸).Category:English terms with quotations#TILDE
- In Portuguese, ⟨ã⟩ and ⟨õ⟩ are nasalized vowels, for example in ⟨canção⟩.
- 2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 162:
- The tilde was used similarly in Portuguese on vowels to show that the letter bearing the tilde should be pronounced nasally.Category:English terms with quotations#TILDE
- Another name for the Vietnamese tone mark dấu ngã, which is placed above a vowel to indicate a creaky rising tone (thanh ngã).
- Another name for apex, a curved diacritic used in the 17th century to mark final nasalization in the early Vietnamese alphabet. It was an adoption of the Portuguese tilde.
- In Spanish, ⟨ñ⟩ is a palatalized ⟨n⟩, for example in ⟨cañón⟩.
- A symbol ⟨~⟩, with various names and uses, also known as swung dash or wave dash. In the computer industry, various other names may be used, such as squiggle and twiddle.
- 1992, Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#TILDE
- The character encoded as decimal 126 in the 1967 ASCII character set, and later in the 1992 Unicode character set.
- A punctuation mark that indicates range (from a number to another number). This use is common in Asia, where the symbol in this case is also called a wave dash.
- In lexicography, the ⟨~⟩ symbol is used used to indicate the repetition of the topical word or item. In this case, the symbol is also called a swung dash.
- May be used to represent approximation, in English prose and in mathematics. For example, “My dog weighs ~30 pounds.”
- (logicCategory:en:Logic#TILDE) An alternate form of the logical negation operator, which is usually written as ¬.
Historical notes
In reference works from the 1950's and earlier (i.e., pre-ASCII), the second meaning of the word “tilde” is not attested. For example, in The Oxford English Dictionary (1933) and Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary (1956), only the meaning of “tilde” as a diacritic is attested.
In the 1967 ASCII standard, the Tilde character was specified to look like a free-floating tilde diacritic (˜), and was intended to be used as a diacritic, by printing it over letters (using overprinting on a paper based computer terminal). In later years, the character was repurposed by users to serve as the symbol ⟨~⟩, and many fonts were changed to match this new de-facto definition. Hence, the word “tilde” entered English as a name for the ⟨~⟩ symbol.
Derived terms
Translations
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
- ASCII
- hyphen
- swung dash – Specific type of tilde, positioned in middle height of line.
- apex – visually similar diacritic in Middle Vietnamese that is often confused with the tilde
- ~
Anagrams
Category:en:Buttons#TILDECategory:en:Diacritical marks#TILDECategory:en:Punctuation marks#TILDEAsturian
Noun
tilde f (plural tildes)Category:Asturian lemmas#TILDECategory:Asturian nouns#TILDECategory:Asturian entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Asturian feminine nouns#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
Synonyms
Crimean Tatar
Noun
tildeCategory:Crimean Tatar non-lemma forms#TILDECategory:Crimean Tatar noun forms#TILDECategory:Crimean Tatar entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
Dutch
Pronunciation
Verb
tildeCategory:Dutch non-lemma forms#TILDECategory:Dutch verb forms#TILDECategory:Dutch entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
- inflection of tillen:
Anagrams
Finnish
Etymology
From SpanishCategory:Finnish terms borrowed from Spanish#TILDECategory:Finnish terms derived from Spanish#TILDE tilde.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtilde/, [ˈt̪ilde̞]Category:Finnish 2-syllable words#TILDECategory:Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation#TILDE
- Rhymes: -ildeCategory:Rhymes:Finnish/ilde#TILDECategory:Rhymes:Finnish/ilde/2 syllables#TILDE
- Syllabification(key): til‧de
- Hyphenation(key): til‧de
Noun
tildeCategory:Finnish lemmas#TILDECategory:Finnish nouns#TILDECategory:Finnish entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
Declension
| Inflection of tilde (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | tilde | tildet | |
| genitive | tilden | tildejen | |
| partitive | tildeä | tildejä | |
| illative | tildeen | tildeihin | |
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | tilde | tildet | |
| accusative | nom. | tilde | tildet |
| gen. | tilden | ||
| genitive | tilden | tildejen tildein rare | |
| partitive | tildeä | tildejä | |
| inessive | tildessä | tildeissä | |
| elative | tildestä | tildeistä | |
| illative | tildeen | tildeihin | |
| adessive | tildellä | tildeillä | |
| ablative | tildeltä | tildeiltä | |
| allative | tildelle | tildeille | |
| essive | tildenä | tildeinä | |
| translative | tildeksi | tildeiksi | |
| abessive | tildettä | tildeittä | |
| instructive | — | tildein | |
| comitative | See the possessive forms below. | ||
Synonyms
Further reading
- “tilde”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023
French
Pronunciation
Noun
tilde m (plural tildes)Category:French lemmas#TILDECategory:French nouns#TILDECategory:French countable nouns#TILDECategory:French entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:French masculine nouns#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
Further reading
- “tilde”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
Anagrams
Category:fr:Punctuation marks#TILDEInterlingua
Noun
tildeCategory:Interlingua lemmas#TILDECategory:Interlingua nouns#TILDECategory:Interlingua entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
Italian
Pronunciation
Noun
tilde m or f (plural tildi)Category:Italian lemmas#TILDECategory:Italian nouns#TILDECategory:Italian countable nouns#TILDECategory:Italian entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Italian masculine nouns#TILDECategory:Italian feminine nouns#TILDECategory:Italian nouns with multiple genders#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
- tilde (all senses)
- (typographyCategory:it:Typography#TILDE) tilde, squiggle
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtilde/ [ˈt̪il̪.d̪e]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#TILDECategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#TILDE
Category:Spanish terms with audio pronunciation#TILDEAudio (Colombia): (file) - Rhymes: -ildeCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ilde#TILDECategory:Rhymes:Spanish/ilde/2 syllables#TILDE
- Syllabification: til‧de
Etymology 1
Deverbal from tildarCategory:Spanish deverbals#TILDE or from LatinCategory:Spanish terms derived from Latin#TILDE titulus, possibly through an Old Catalan or Old Provençal intermediate (accounting for the final -e instead of -o).[1]
Noun
tilde f or (rare) m (plural tildes)Category:Spanish lemmas#TILDECategory:Spanish nouns#TILDECategory:Spanish countable nouns#TILDECategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Spanish feminine nouns#TILDECategory:Spanish masculine nouns#TILDECategory:Spanish nouns with multiple genders#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
- accent mark, i.e. acute accent
- Synonym: acento ortográfico
- tilde
- Synonym: virgulilla
- criticism, censure
Usage notes
- In Spanish, the term tilde refers to a diacritic in general (including the tilde on top of ñ) but it is primarily used to designate the acute accent, as in á. The term virgulilla is used to specifically refer to the tilde on top of ñ.
Derived terms
Descendants
See also
- acento diacrítico, when used to distinguish “el” from “él”, for instance
Etymology 2
Verb
tildeCategory:Spanish non-lemma forms#TILDECategory:Spanish verb forms#TILDECategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
- inflection of tildar:
References
- ↑ Coromines, Joan; Pascual, José Antonio (1983–1991), “tilde”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic etymological dictionary] (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos
Further reading
- “tilde”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
- Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “tilde”, in Diccionario del español actual (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA
Tagalog
Etymology
Borrowed from SpanishCategory:Tagalog terms borrowed from Spanish#TILDECategory:Tagalog terms derived from Spanish#TILDE tilde, with semantic loan from EnglishCategory:Tagalog semantic loans from English#TILDECategory:Tagalog terms derived from English#TILDE tilde.
Pronunciation
- (Standard Tagalog) IPA(key): /ˈtilde/ [ˈt̪il.d̪ɛ]Category:Tagalog 2-syllable words#TILDECategory:Tagalog terms with IPA pronunciation#TILDE
- Rhymes: -ildeCategory:Rhymes:Tagalog/ilde#TILDECategory:Rhymes:Tagalog/ilde/2 syllables#TILDE
- Syllabification: til‧deCategory:Tagalog terms with malumay pronunciation#TILDE
Noun
tilde (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜒᜎ᜔ᜇᜒ)Category:Tagalog lemmas#TILDECategory:Tagalog nouns#TILDECategory:Tagalog terms with missing Baybayin script entries#TILDECategory:Tagalog terms with Baybayin script#TILDECategory:Tagalog entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
- tilde
- accent mark
- Synonym: tuldik
Further reading
- “tilde”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2025
- “tilde”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018
Turkish
Etymology
Borrowed from SpanishCategory:Turkish terms borrowed from Spanish#TILDECategory:Turkish terms derived from Spanish#TILDE tilde.
Pronunciation
Noun
tilde (definite accusative tildeyi, plural tildeler)Category:Turkish lemmas#TILDECategory:Turkish nouns#TILDECategory:Turkish entries with incorrect language header#TILDECategory:Pages with entries#TILDECategory:Pages with 11 entries#TILDE
Declension
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | tilde | tildeler |
| definite accusative | tildeyi | tildeleri |
| dative | tildeye | tildelere |
| locative | tildede | tildelerde |
| ablative | tildeden | tildelerden |
| genitive | tildenin | tildelerin |