The tilde is a grapheme ⟨˜⟩ or ⟨~⟩ with a number of uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish tilde, which, in turn, came from the Latin titulus, meaning 'title' or 'superscription'. Its primary use internationally is as a diacritic in combination with a base letter. Its freestanding form, most common in English, is used in modern texts mainly to indicate approximation.