Wave dash

A wavy line joining a range.

Also known as: Tilde range mark

In Japanese:: 波ダッシュ
In Japanese (Latin):: Nami dasshu
In Chinese:: 波浪號

CulturalKeyboard & punctuationQuiet profile

Meanings

The East Asian punctuation joining the ends of a range, drawn as a wave.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Joins the two ends of a range of numbers, times or places.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Software
Common modern usageVerified fact
Frequently corrupted to the Latin tilde in text conversion because the two look alike and were mapped to each other in legacy encodings, which is one of the best-known mojibake failures in Japanese text handling.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Software

Visual description

A horizontal wavy line occupying a character cell, joining two values.

A fuller structured visual breakdown is not yet documented for this symbol.

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but only a single source has been found so far.
Historical originLow confidence: Low confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but only a single source has been found so far, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is defined by a current official standard, but only a single source has been found so far.
Visual matchModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but only a single source has been found so far.

Sources

East Asian typography, punctuation and reading marks
The Unicode Consortium and East Asian typographic standards bodies · retrieved 2026-08-27
Cited for the identity, encoded form and typographic behaviour of East Asian punctuation and reading marks. Layout requirements differ between Chinese, Japanese and Korean practice and a record names the tradition it describes.

Last reviewed 2026-08-27

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Meanings

The East Asian punctuation joining the ends of a range, drawn as a wave.

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Joins the two ends of a range of numbers, times or places.

Contexts: Language and transcription, Software

Common modern usageVerified fact

Frequently corrupted to the Latin tilde in text conversion because the two look alike and were mapped to each other in legacy encodings, which is one of the best-known mojibake failures in Japanese text handling.

Contexts: Language and transcription, Software

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is defined by a current official standard, but only a single source has been found so far.
Historical originLow confidence: Low confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but only a single source has been found so far, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is defined by a current official standard, but only a single source has been found so far.
Visual matchModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but only a single source has been found so far.

Sources

East Asian typography, punctuation and reading marks
The Unicode Consortium and East Asian typographic standards bodies · retrieved 2026-08-27
Cited for the identity, encoded form and typographic behaviour of East Asian punctuation and reading marks. Layout requirements differ between Chinese, Japanese and Korean practice and a record names the tradition it describes.

Last reviewed 2026-08-27