Identify the glyph that looks like a tilde crossed by diagonal slashes — likely U+2241 (NOT TILDE) or U+2249 (NOT ALMOST EQUAL TO)

Learn how to identify a Unicode glyph that looks like a tilde crossed by one or two diagonal slashes. Includes likely Unicode names and code points (for example ≁ U+2241 and ≉ U+2249), meanings, LaTeX/HTML codes, and simple steps to identify and type the exact character.

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Short answer: it is probably one of the Unicode "not" variants of tilde/equality symbols, most likely either ≁ (U+2241, NOT TILDE) or ≉ (U+2249, NOT ALMOST EQUAL TO). Both look like a tilde or almost-equals sign with a diagonal slash through it.

Common candidates you might be seeing:

  • ∼ — ∼ U+223C 'TILDE OPERATOR' (plain tilde operator)
  • ≁ — ≁ U+2241 'NOT TILDE' (tilde with a slash: negation of similarity)
  • ≈ — ≈ U+2248 'ALMOST EQUAL TO' (tilde over equals)
  • ≉ — ≉ U+2249 'NOT ALMOST EQUAL TO' (approx equals with a slash)

How to identify exactly which glyph you have (step by step):

  1. Copy the glyph (select and copy).
  2. Paste it into a Unicode lookup site, for example https://codepoints.net or https://unicode-table.com . These sites will show the exact code point and Unicode name.
  3. Or use a quick browser console check: open the dev console and paste 
     'PASTE_HERE'.codePointAt(0).toString(16)
    replacing PASTE_HERE with the pasted character. The output is the hex code point (for example 2241 or 2249).
  4. On Windows use Character Map or the new Emoji & Symbol viewer; on Mac use the Character Viewer. Search for names like "not tilde" or "not almost equal".

How to type or reference these symbols:

  • HTML numeric entity (hex): ≁ for ≁ and ≉ for ≉.
  • LaTeX: \nsim produces ≁, \not\approx or \napprox produces ≉ (or use amssymb package commands).
  • In code: use the Unicode escape, e.g. '\u2241' or '\u2249' (language-dependent).

If you can, paste the glyph here and I will read its exact code point and name for you.

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