Tilde Key Explained: What does that squiggly little line mean?

The tilde key is an odd fellow. It exists right below "Esc" on most keyboards, close to utilitarian workhorses such as “Q” and “1”, yet remains unused by the population at large. Why is this? Perhaps the majority avoid it because they are unfamiliar with its purpose and scared of misusing it. Let's change that.

If you want to be technical and linguistic about it, it’s an accent, meaning that when applied to a letter, it can change the sound of that letter. This isn’t really a thing when it comes to English, but it’s found here and there in the writing system of all sorts of languages like Arabic, Spanish, Estonian, Syrian, and some Cyrillic languages, too.

However, if that was a relevant use-case for you, then you’d already know and wouldn’t have found yourself on this page. You’re probably wondering what it means when it shows up in English sentences, specifically when inserted before a number.

If you see a tilde or “~” immediately before a number, it simply means “Approximately”. For example, “~28” just means “approximately 28” or “roughly 28” or “around 28”.

It’s that simple, folks.

Technically, there are other uses for the squiggly little lad, but they range from outdated by ~1000 years, to being used to indicate alternating current in an electrical diagram. So don’t fret too much, as these uses probably won’t come up too often.

By default, the tilde key is almost never used for gaming. It’s extremely rare that you’ll find it already bound to an action. This is quite handy as it turns out, as it’s never in use in-game, and rarely used outside of gaming, you can bind it to whatever you like with relative impunity. It’s free real estate.