How to Make Tilde Symbol with Keyboard?

Tilde symbol ~ is part of standard US English keyboard layout and combined with the back quote ` key. You can find this symbol on top left corner of the keyboard just below the escape key. Simply press “Shift + Tilde” keys to insert tilde symbol on your documents. However, many modern laptops and keyboard layouts do not include this key. If you frequently use tilde symbol, here is how you can make it with keyboard shortcuts. Since most of these keyboard shortcuts and options are generic in nature, you can use it in your documents, chat conversations and in any app.

Tilde Symbol Keyboard Shortcuts – Summary

Below is the overall summary of keyboard shortcuts to make tilde symbol:

Symbol Name	Tilde
Alt Code (Windows)	Alt + 0126
Alt + X (Word)	007E + Alt + X
Mac Shortcut	Option + 007E
HTML Entity Decimal	~
HTML Entity Hexadecimal	~
CSS Value	\007E
JS Value	\u007E
Decimal	126
Hexadecimal	007E
Unicode Point	U+007E

Make Tilde Symbol in Windows

You can use one of the below methods to insert tilde symbol in Windows computers.

• Alt code decimal shortcuts – if you have a longer keyboard with separate number pad then this is the most easy way. Simply, place the cursor in the place where you want to insert the symbol and press “Alt + 0126”. On some machines, you may need to use AltGr key and use three digits without the leading zero.
• Hexadecimal code shortcut – if you want to insert the symbol frequently in Microsoft Word documents, then the alternate option is to use hexadecimal code equivalent like “007E Alt + X”. This does not need separate number pad and only works in Word documents in Windows.
• Using Character Map app – use Windows Search to find and open Character Map app. Using this app, you can search for tilde symbol and insert anywhere in a text box. First change the font to Arial then type 007E in the “Go to Unicode” text box and press enter key. This will highlight the tilde symbol which you can select and then copy to clipboard. Once copied, you can insert the symbol in any app by pasting it using “Control + V” keys.

Make Tilde Symbol in macOS

Similar to Windows, you can use the following methods to insert tilde symbol in macOS documents like Pages and Keynote.

• Hexadecimal shortcut – press “option + 007E” keys to make tilde ~ symbol in Mac. However, you need to first switch the language input to Unicode Hex Input for using this method. Good part is that this method will work on all applications including third-party apps like Word for Mac.
• Using Character Viewer app – alternate option to insert tilde symbol in Mac is to use Character Viewer app. Press “Command + Control + Shift” keys to open the app. Type “tilde” in the search box to find all related symbols and double click on tilde symbol to insert in your document. The advantage of this method is that you can view and insert lot of font variations. However, font variations will only work in Mac native apps like Pages and all font variations will create the same tilde symbol in Word for Mac and other third-party apps.

Make Tilde Symbol in Wed Documents

It is also easy to make tilde symbol in web documents by escape entities in HTML or CSS. To insert the symbol in HTML, use either decimal equivalent or hexadecimal code as given in the below format:

<span>&#0126;</span>
<span>&#007E; </span>

If you want to use CSS, then use the following code:

li:before {
    content:\1EF9;
}

You can use any HTML tags instead of span and li used on the above examples.

Usage of Tilde Symbol

The usage of tilde symbol varies depending upon the purpose. Here are some of the popular ways people use tilde symbol and other variations.

• Approximately is the most common meaning of tilde symbol like ~5 indicates approximately 5.
• Tilde symbol is also used to indicate a range like 3 ~ 8.
• In Unix, tilde means the home directory of user.
• Tilde is part of many languages to make special characters with tones like Ễ and ỹ.
• In mathematics, it is used with the meaning as same order of magnitude like X~Y.

Other Tilde Symbols

As mentioned above, tilde symbol is part of many languages to create diacritic letters. In our earlier articles, we explained how to type all these special language letters using alt code shortcuts in Windows and Mac. Besides those language letters, tilde symbol has different related symbols and variations used for different purposes. Below table provides the list of other tilde symbol that you can type with alt code shortcuts.

As mentioned above, you can use the alt code shortcuts in Windows while hex code can be used in Windows Word (in 02DC Alt + X format) and Mac applications (in option + 02DC format).

Symbol	Name	Alt Code	Hex Code
˜	Small Tilde	Alt + 732	02DC
˷	Modifier Letter Low Tilde	Alt + 759	02F7
̃	Combining Tilde	Alt + 771	0303
̰	Combining Tilde Below	Alt + 816	0330
̴	Combining Tilde Overlay	Alt + 820	0334
̾	Combining Vertical Tilde	Alt + 830	033E
͊	Combining Not Tilde Above	Alt + 842	034A
͠	Combining Double Tilde	Alt + 864	0360
∼	Tilde Operator	Alt + 8764	223C
∽	Reversed Tilde	Alt + 8765	223D
≁	Not Tilde	Alt + 8769	2241
≂	Minus Tilde	Alt + 8770	2242
≋	Triple Tilde	Alt + 8779	224B
⋍	Reversed Tilde Equals	Alt + 8909	22CD
⥲	Tilde Operator Above Rightwards Arrow	Alt + 10610	2972
⥳	Leftwards Arrow Above Tilde Operator	Alt + 10611	2973
⥴	Rightwards Arrow Above Tilde Operator	Alt + 10612	2974
⧤	Equals Sign and Slanted Parallel with Tilde Above	Alt + 10724	29E4
⨤	Plus Sign with Tilde Above	Alt + 10788	2A24
⨦	Plus Sign with Tilde Below	Alt + 10790	2A26
⩪	Tilde Operator with Dot Above	Alt + 10858	2A6A
⩫	Tilde Operator with Rising Dots	Alt + 10859	2A6B
⩳	Equals Sign Above Tilde Operator	Alt + 10867	2A73
⫇	Subset Of Above Tilde Operator	Alt + 10951	2AC7
⫈	Superset Of Above Tilde Operator	Alt + 10952	2AC8
⫳	Parallel With Tilde Operator	Alt + 10995	2AF3
⭁	Reverse Tilde Operator Above Leftwards Arrow	Alt + 11073	2B41
⭇	Reverse Tilde Operator Above Rightwards Arrow	Alt + 11079	2B47
⭉	Tilde Operator Above Leftwards Arrow	Alt + 11081	2B49
⭋	Leftwards Arrow Above Reverse Tilde Operator	Alt + 11083	2B4B
⭌	Rightwards Arrow Above Reverse Tilde Operator	Alt + 11084	2B4C
⸛	Tilde With Ring Above	Alt + 11803	2E1B
⸞	Tilde With Dot Above	Alt + 11806	2E1E
⸟	Tilde With Dot Below	Alt + 11807	2E1F
ⸯ	Vertical Tilde	Alt + 11823	2E2F
～	Fullwidth Tilde	Alt + 65374	FF5E

Double Tilde and Other Mathematical Tilde Symbols

There are lot of tilde related symbols used for approximation purposes like ≈ and ≉. However, these symbols are named with “equal to” in mathematical context and not including tilde in their names. For example, double tilde symbol is used for approximation purposes like ≈10. However, this is named as “Almost Equal to” symbol in Unicode with the codepoint as U+8776. Similarly, double tilde with cross ≉ symbol means “Not Almost Equal to” which has the codepoint U+8777. You can check out the complete list of alt codes for mathematical symbols to get shortcuts for these symbols.

Make Tilde Symbol in Smartphones

On Android and iPhone, you can use the default keyboard to insert the tilde symbol. For example, you need to first tap on the “123” key to view tilde and other symbols in iPhone. On some keyboard layouts in Android, you may need to tap number key showing as “123” or symbols key showing as “#+=” to view tilde symbol.

Smartphone keyboard layouts only include standard tilde symbol and for any other symbols as listed in the above table, the only option for you is to copy and paste.