# What do you call the \`/~ key on your keyboard **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392 "2012-05-19T03:53:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/21 "2012-05-19T16:34:29Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > What we call the key isn’t really the question we should be asking. The question is: > > _ **What do you use it for?** _ Almost exclusively for “approximately”, and fairly frequently at that. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually used the grave itself, and until this thread couldn’t have told you its name. Maybe for a paper in my college poetry class. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/22 "2012-05-19T16:40:36Z")
I normally would call it tilde, but grave wouldn’t sound weird either. It is both the grave and the tilde key. I think tilde is probably more common because outside of certain people who use specialty programs I think the tilde is actually more used than the grave, so that is probably why the shifted key became the more prominent. The ? key is also probably called the question mark key and the / key interchangeably. I know when I want to type a ? I think of it as the ? key and not the shifted / key. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/23 "2012-05-19T16:48:30Z")
It’s not really a tilde because you can’t put it above any letters (yeah, I know it’s evolved to mean other things, but that’s what it means to me). I call it the “approximately” symbol. I don’t use the other one, so I don’t call it anything. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/24 "2012-05-19T17:01:14Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > I pronounce it as GRAH-vay. Not to be confused with gravy. Or sometimes the TIL-duh key. _Grave_ is a one-syllable word, in French and English. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/25 "2012-05-19T17:14:01Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > The reason I ask, is that ` is a common hotkey for opening a console in applications (usually games), and people always say "press the tilde key." I always found it confusing, because ~ is shift+`, whereas ~ won’t open the console, only ` will. Thus, I always referred to it as grave to eliminate ambiguity because whenever somebody said "press the tilde key" I would think "press shift+`" instead of the intended “press `”. I don’t think it’s ambiguous. Key combinations always include the shift. Control-A does not mean Control-Shift-a, and press the Z key does not mean press Shift-z. If you really think you need to disambiguate, just say “no shift” or “by itself.” > [@Jragon](#): > > As for “grave”, if you’re on Mac, you can put it over a letter using some key combo or another, though I don’t think you can on Windows. You can if you set your keyboard to US-International. It becomes a dead key, along with "/'. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/26 "2012-05-19T17:26:48Z")
Eyebrow and mustache. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/27 "2012-05-19T17:49:53Z")
> [@DearestDane](#): > > In names like **Niño Ricardo** or **La Niña de los Peines**. Seriously? Do you have one of those things they called a “typewriter” or something? How do you connect it to the internets? ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/28 "2012-05-19T17:51:38Z")
I don’t really call it anything, mainly because I have never had it come up in conversation, but I think of it as an approximate symbol (which is what I mainly use it for). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/29 "2012-05-19T18:05:17Z")
My current keyboard does not have such a key, but when I had one that did I did not call it anything. Why do keys need names? If I wanted to tell someone to type one or other of those symbols (or that I had typed one or other of them), I would refer to the symbol, not the key, and I would try to use the term that they would be most likely to understand. I take it that the nearest to “correct” terms for those symbols would be “grave” (grahv) and “tilde,” but they might not be the most widely understood. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/30 "2012-05-19T18:06:18Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Seriously? Do you have one of those things they called a “typewriter” or something? How do you connect it to the internets? [Keyboard shortcuts, method 1, Word for Windows.](http://www.conted.und.edu/Bbsix/courses/typespanish.html) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/31 "2012-05-19T21:49:29Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > [Keyboard shortcuts, method 1, Word for Windows.](http://www.conted.und.edu/Bbsix/courses/typespanish.html) Well of course, but that’s just a nuisance, when you can simply program a macro for **alt-n** to do it one stroke. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/32 "2012-05-19T22:02:51Z")
The “squiggle key”, so I voted “squiggly”. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/33 "2012-05-20T02:10:18Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > _Grave_ is a one-syllable word, in French and English. Yeah I know, I looked it up. I must have heard it wrong years ago and the mispronunciation stuck. I don’t say it often enough to be embarrassed by it. I suppose it’s safer to just call it the tilde key from now on, though. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/34 "2012-05-20T03:02:46Z")
I can’t believe how many of you thought you could not put a symbol over a letter! I guess some of us type Spanish (or other non-English) words more than others. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/35 "2012-06-03T14:18:46Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > I can’t believe how many of you thought you could not put a symbol over a letter! I guess some of us type Spanish (or other non-English) words more than others. I think you’re missing the point of the joke. Of course we use these Spanish symbols all the time (in California, at least). The joke is that, when I was a boy, and people still used typewriters, you had to use the backspace key, and physically type a second time in the same place. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/36 "2012-06-03T19:14:42Z")
Having taught classes in Adobe Illustrator, the books all refer to it as the Tilde key. There are actually a few cool tricks you can do with that key in Illustrator. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/37 "2012-06-03T20:33:56Z")
I’m not sure I have ever actually referred to it. but if I was going to, I would probably call it the tilde key. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/38 "2012-06-03T20:42:53Z")
“grave/tilde”? The grave is primary, ostensibly, though I may use the tilde more. And yes, “grahv till-deh.” > [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > I’ve never had occasion to call the key anything at all. I’ve typed a tilde occasionally, but the key has never come up in conversation at all. Pretty much this. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/39 "2012-06-04T11:00:16Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I’m not sure I have ever actually referred to it. but if I was going to, I would probably call it the tilde key. Similarly, I came in to say that although I know that the squiggle is called a tilde and even use them on occasion, I have never in all my years had occasion to refer to the key in any manner. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392/40 "2012-06-04T11:17:46Z")
Tilde for me. > [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > There’s no other key on the board that I refer to by its shifted name. I’m more likely to refer to the question mark key than the slash key, and ditto for the PrintScreen and Pause keys. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-the-key-on-your-keyboard/622392.md?page=3)