tilde

See also: Tilde and tildé

English

WOTD – 25 July 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish tilde, from Latin titulus (“superscript”) or from tildar. Doublet of titer/titre, title, titlo, tittle, and titulus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɪldə/, /ˈtɪldi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪldə

Noun

tilde grapheme

tilde (plural tildes)

1. The grapheme of character ~.
   1. A diacritical mark (˜) placed above a letter to modify its pronunciation, such as by palatalization in Spanish words or nasalization in Portuguese words.
      • 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.

   2. A punctuation mark that indicates range (from a number to another number).
   3. May be used to represent approximation (mathematics).
2. (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

Derived terms

• overtilde
• undertilde
• zilde

Translations

diacritical mark

• Arabic: تِلْدَة‎ f (tilda)
• Bulgarian: тилда f (tilda)
• Catalan: titlla (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ∼, ~ (zh), 波浪號／波浪号 (bōlànghào), 波浪符 (bōlàngfú), 波形號／波形号 (zh) (bōxínghào)

• Czech: vlnovka f, tilda f
• Danish: tilde (da) c
• Dutch: tilde (nl)
• Esperanto: tildo
• Estonian: tilde (et)
• Finnish: aaltoviiva (fi), tilde (fi)
• French: tilde (fr) m
• German: Schlangenlinie (de), Tilde (de) f
• Greek: περισπωμένη (el) f (perispoméni)
• Hebrew: גַּל‎ (he) (gál), זַרְקָא‎ (he) m (zarqá)
• Hungarian: hullámvonal, tilde (hu), hullám (hu)
• Icelandic: bylgja (is) f
• Italian: tilde (it) f
• Japanese: チルダ (ja) (chiruda)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کەشە‎ (ku) (keşe)

• Macedonian: ти́лда f (tílda)
• Maori: tire
• Polish: tylda (pl) f
• Portuguese: til (pt) m
• Romanian: tildă (ro) f
• Russian: ти́льда (ru) f (tílʹda)
• Serbo-Croatian: tilda (sh) f
• Spanish: tilde (es) m or f
• Swedish: tilde (sv) n or c
• Ukrainian: ти́льда f (týlʹda)
• Vietnamese: dấu ngã (vi)
• Welsh: tild m

character

• Czech: vlnovka f
• Dutch: tilde (nl)
• Finnish: aaltoviiva (fi), tilde (fi)
• German: Tilde (de) f
• Greek: περισπωμένη (el) f (perispoméni)
• Macedonian: ти́лда f (tílda)
• Polish: tylda (pl) f
• Portuguese: til (pt) m
• Russian: ти́льда (ru) f (tílʹda)
• Spanish: tilde (es)
• Ukrainian: ти́льда f (týlʹda)
• Welsh: tild m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Catalan: ^{(please verify)} titlla (ca)
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} tilde (nl)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} tilde

See also

• ASCII
• hyphen
• swung dash – Specific type of tilde, positioned in middle height of line.

Anagrams

• lited, tiled

Asturian

Noun

tilde f (plural tildes)

1. (orthography) accent

Synonyms

• acentu

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

tilde

1. singular past indicative and subjunctive of tillen

Anagrams

• leidt

Finnish

Etymology

From Spanish tilde.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtilde/, [ˈt̪ilde̞]
• Rhymes: -ilde
• Syllabification^(key): til‧de

Noun

tilde

1. 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 tildeinrare
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
instructive		—	tildein
abessive		tildettä	tildeittä
comitative		—	tildeineen

Possessive forms of tilde (type nalle)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	tildeni	tildemme
2nd person	tildesi	tildenne
3rd person	tildensä

Synonyms

• aaltoviiva

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tild/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tilde m (plural tildes)

1. tilde

Further reading

• “tilde”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• délit, ledit

Interlingua

Noun

tilde

1. tilde

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtil.de/
• Rhymes: -ilde
• Syllabification: tìl‧de

Noun

tilde m or f (plural tildi)

1. tilde (all senses)
2. (typography) tilde, squiggle

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtilde/ [ˈt̪il̪.d̪e]
• Rhymes: -ilde
• Syllabification: til‧de

Etymology 1

From tildar or from Latin titulus, possibly through an Old Catalan or Old Provençal intermediate (accounting for the final -e instead of -o).

Noun

tilde m or f (plural tildes) (usually feminine)

1. accent mark, i.e. acute accent

   Synonym: acento ortográfico

2. tilde

   Synonym: virgulilla

3. 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

• atildar

 

Descendants

• → English: tilde
• → Japanese: チルダ (chiruda)
• → Polish: tylda
• → Russian: ти́льда (tílʹda)
• → Serbo-Croatian: ти̑лда / tȋlda
• → Turkish: tilde

See also

• acento diacrítico, when used to distinguish “el” from “él”, for instance

Etymology 2

Verb

tilde

1. inflection of tildar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “tilde”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish tilde.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tilde]

Noun

tilde (definite accusative tildeyi, plural tildeler)

1. tilde

Declension

Inflection
Nominative	tilde
Definite accusative	tildeyi
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tilde	tildeler
Definite accusative	tildeyi	tildeleri
Dative	tildeye	tildelere
Locative	tildede	tildelerde
Ablative	tildeden	tildelerden
Genitive	tildenin	tildelerin