TILDE

tilde

(noun) a diacritical mark (~) placed over the letter n in Spanish to indicate a palatal nasal sound or over a vowel in Portuguese to indicate nasalization

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

tilde (plural tildes)

The grapheme of character ~.

A diacritical mark (˜) placed above a letter to modify its pronunciation, such as by palatalization in Spanish words or nasalization in Portuguese words.

A punctuation mark that indicates range (from a number to another number).

May be used to represent approximation (mathematics).

(logic) The character used to represent negation, usually ~ or ¬.

Usage notes

Commonly used for these letters: ã and õ (Portuguese), and ñ (Spanish); Vietnamese, Guaraní etc. use it for several other letters.

Synonyms

• squiggle, twiddle

Anagrams

• lited, tiled

Source: Wiktionary

Til"de, n. Etym: [Sp., fr. L. titulus a superscription, title, token, sign. See Title, n.]

Definition: The accentual mark placed over n, and sometimes over l, in Spanish words [thus, ñ, l], indicating that, in pronunciation, the sound of the following vowel is to be preceded by that of the initial, or consonantal, y.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition