A diacritical mark (~) used in some languages, such as Spanish and Portuguese, to indicate a change in pronunciation, such as nasalization or palatalization. noun
In Spanish, the tilde is used over the letter 'n' to form 'ñ', as in the word 'niño'.
Portuguese uses the tilde to indicate nasal vowels, as seen in the word 'pão'.
A symbol (~) used in mathematics and logic to denote equivalence or approximation. noun
In mathematics, the tilde can be used to indicate that two quantities are approximately equal, such as 'x ~ y'.
In logic, a tilde may be used to denote negation, as in '~p' meaning 'not p'.
A symbol (~) used in computing and digital contexts, often representing a home directory in Unix-based systems or as a shorthand for a user's home directory. noun
In Unix-based systems, typing 'cd ~' in the terminal takes you to your home directory.
The tilde is often used in URLs to represent a user's directory, such as 'http://example.com/~username'.