≈
Approximately Equal To
- Unicode
- U+2248
- Category
- Math
- HTML Entity
- ≈
- CSS
- \2248
The approximately equal to symbol (≈) is a mathematical operator used to indicate that two values are close but not exactly the same. Introduced as part of the Unicode Mathematical Operators block, it consists of two wavy lines that mimic a flexible or estimated version of a standard equals sign. It is widely used in mathematics, physics, and engineering to denote estimates, as well as in everyday text to signify rough measurements.
How to Type
- Windows
- Alt+247 or Alt+8776
- macOS
- Option+X
- Linux
- Compose + ~ + ~
- HTML
- ≈ or ≈
In Programming
While rarely used in standard code execution due to keyboard limitations, it frequently appears in LaTeX (\approx) and technical documentation to render mathematical formulas. Most programming languages handle floating-point approximations using specific built-in functions like Math.isclose() instead.
Tags
HTML ≈
Unicode U+2248
about equal
almost equal
approximately
approximately sign
asymp
double tilde
estimation
estimation symbol
mathematics
near
roughly equal
tilde tilde
wavy equals sign