What Is The Tilde Symbol Used For?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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This symbol (in US English) informally means “

approximately”

, “about”, or “around”, such as “~30 minutes before”, meaning “approximately 30 minutes before”. It can mean “similar to”, including “of the same order of magnitude as”, such as “x ~ y” meaning that x and y are of the same order of magnitude.

What does ∼ mean?

∼ “∼” used between two math expressions is called

the tilde operator

. For functions f and g, the statement “f∼g” means that f is asymptotic to g. “∼” is one of many symbols, listed in the Wikipedia article on approximation, used to indicate that one number is approximately equal to another.

What is a tilde used for in texting?

The tilde sign generally means ‘about’ or ‘approximately’, and when used at the end of a sentence it’s intended to

convey a cute warbling trail-off rather than an abrupt stop

. Like the sort of sound an excited teenager would make.

When would you use a tilde?

In lexicography (a subject within linguistics) the tilde is used in

dictionaries to indicate omission of an entry word

. Informally, the symbol can be used to mean “approximately.” For example: “~30 minutes before sautéing the onions, chop the potatoes coarsely.”

What does a tilde symbolize?

A tilde is a character on a

keyboard that looks like a wavy line (~)

. … When you put a tilde before a number, for example, you’re saying that the number is approximate. If you wanted to say that your club had about $1,500 in the bank, you could use a tilde to write that the club had ~$1,500.

What’s symbol called?

Symbol Name of the Symbol Similar glyphs or related concepts & Ampersand ⟨ ⟩ Angle brackets Bracket, Parenthesis, Greater-than sign, Less-than sign ‘ ‘ Apostrophe Quotation mark, Guillemet, Prime, foot (unit), minute *

Asterisk

What are () called in English?

They can also be used in mathematical expressions. For example, 2{1+[23-3]}=x.

Parentheses

( () ) are curved notations used to contain further thoughts or qualifying remarks. However, parentheses can be replaced by commas without changing the meaning in most cases.

What does * around words mean?

In linguistics, an asterisk is placed before a word or phrase to indicate that it is not

used

, or there are no records of it being in use. … It may be used to indicate reconstructed words in proto-languages for which there are no records of the pronunciation, grammar and words.

What does a tilde mean after a sentence?

Tildes here strip words and phrases of their baggage, and render their meaning and

implications inoffensive, fun

. … In other words, the tilde builds negation into a statement. That’s more or less exactly how the tildes in the examples above function: They are built to anticipate the opposite.

What is the squiggly symbol called?

Te tilde (~ , pronounced TILL-duh or TILL-dee and sometimes called a “twiddle” or a “squiggle”) is a special character found on most keyboards and used in a wide range of IT-related applications, including mathematics, programming, file systems, directories and URL addressing.

What is Ñ called in English?

Ñ, ñ (called

eñe or N with a tilde

) is a grapheme used in Spanish and in several other languages using the Roman alphabet to indicate the sound which in the International Phonetic Alphabet is written [ɲ], corresponding approximately to the ny in English canyon.

How do you put a tilde over a letter?

Press

“Ctrl-Shift” and the tilde

(” ~ “) key and then the letter to insert a tilde accent.

How do you put a tilde in a dialogue?

The ’tilde’ key, or (~) is commonly found in programming and in other languages

to express repetition of characters

, for example, ‘Woooo!’ would become ‘Woo~!’ and in Japanese text, the tilde is commonly used to portray a flirtatious mood. It can also be used to show approximation, e.g. ‘1~20’.

What does the wave symbol mean?

Waves also hold a certain level of duality, as they have been known to swallow sailors, but also propel them to their destinations. For some it may symbolize

a particular horoscope associated with water

, such as Aquarius, Pisces or Cancer.

What does the tilde symbol mean in statistics?

In statistics, the tilde is frequently used to mean “

has the distribution (of)

,” for instance, means “the stochastic (random) variable has the distribution (the standard normal distribution). If and are stochastic variables then means ” has the same distribution as .

How do you put a tilde over a letter in Word?

First

type the letter, then insert the combining tilde

(by choosing it from the Symbol dialog or using a shortcut key that you assign). The tilde will center under the letter, which the modifier tilde won’t do.

Maria Kunar
Author
Maria Kunar
Maria is a cultural enthusiast and expert on holiday traditions. With a focus on the cultural significance of celebrations, Maria has written several blogs on the history of holidays and has been featured in various cultural publications. Maria's knowledge of traditions will help you appreciate the meaning behind celebrations.