Editing Tilde (section)

===Common use in English<span class="anchor" id="Common use"></span>===
<!-- Advice to editors: this section is about use in English. Uses in other languages (e.g, Japanese) and specialist uses (e.g., Computing, Mathematics) go in those sections, not here. -->
The [[English language]] does not use the tilde as a diacritic, though it is used in some [[loanword]]s. The standalone form of the symbol is used more widely. Informally,<ref name=wolfram_tilde /> it means [[approximation|"approximately"]], "about", or "around", such as "~30 minutes before", meaning "''approximately'' 30 minutes before".<ref name="bymath1"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/fdsspec/maths.aspx|title=Character design standards – Maths|website=[[Microsoft]]}}</ref> It may also mean "similar to",<ref name="htmlhelp1">{{cite web| first =Liam | last = Quinn |url=http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/symbols.html |title=HTML 4.0 Entities for Symbols and Greek Letters |publisher=HTML help |access-date=11 November 2011}}</ref> including "of the same [[order of magnitude]] as",<ref name=wolfram_tilde>{{cite web|url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Tilde.html | publisher = Wolfram/MathWorld | title = Tilde |date=3 November 2011 |access-date=11 November 2011}}</ref> such as "{{math |{{mvar |x}} ~ {{mvar|y}}}}" meaning that {{mvar|x}} and {{mvar|y}} are of the same order of magnitude. Another approximation symbol is the [[approximation#Mathematics|double tilde]] {{char|≈}}, meaning "approximately/almost equal to".<ref name="bymath1" /><ref name="htmlhelp1"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.solving-math-problems.com/math-symbols-approximately-equal.html |title=Math Symbols... Those Most Valuable and Important: Approximately Equal Symbol |publisher=Solving Math problems |date=20 September 2010 |access-date=11 November 2011 |archive-date=9 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109213922/http://www.solving-math-problems.com/math-symbols-approximately-equal.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref> The tilde is also used to indicate [[congruence (geometry)|congruence]] of shapes by placing it over an {{char|1==}} symbol, thus {{char|≅}}.

In more recent digital usage, tildes on either side of a word or phrase have sometimes come to convey a particular tone that "let[s] the enclosed words perform both sincerity and irony", which can pre-emptively defuse a negative reaction.<ref name=Bernstein>{{cite web |last1=Bernstein |first1=Joseph |title=The Hidden Language of The ~Tilde~ |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/the-hidden-language-of-the-tilde |website=[[BuzzFeed News]] |date=5 January 2015 |language=en}}</ref> For example, [[BuzzFeed News|BuzzFeed]] journalist Joseph Bernstein interprets the tildes in the following [[Twitter#Tweets|tweet]]: 
:"in the ~ spirit of the season ~ will now link to some of the (imho) #Bestof2014 sports reads. if you hate nice things, mute that hashtag."
as a way of making it clear that both the author and reader are aware that the enclosed phrase – "spirit of the season" – "is cliche and we know this quality is beneath our author, and we don't want you to think our author is a cliche person generally".<ref name=Bernstein />{{efn|See also [[Air quotes]].}}

Among other uses, the symbol has been used on [[social media]] to [[Irony punctuation|indicate sarcasm]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Internet Tilde Perfectly Conveys Something We Don't Have the Words to Explain |author= Jess Kimball Leslie | date=June 5, 2017 |website=The Cut |url=https://www.thecut.com/article/why-the-internet-tilde-is-our-most-perfect-tool-for-snark.html}}</ref> It may also be used online, especially in informal writing such as [[fan fiction|fanfiction]], to convey a cutesy, playful, or flirtatious tone.<ref>{{cite web |title=What Are Tildes ( ~ ) And How Do You Use Them? | date=April 12, 2022 |website=Thesaurus.com |url=https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/tildes/}}</ref>
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