# Big tilde over regular text, not in math mode?

I am looking for ways to put tilde over regular text. In math mode, we can put tilde above letters by $\widetilde{ASK}$. Is there a way to do the same thing for regular text longer than three letters? I mean: not in math mode, how to do big tilde over texts? The questions being answered all require math mode.

• Possible duplicate: Big tilde in math mode (you can set the text using \mbox{...}, even in math mode). – Werner Dec 7 '17 at 21:52
• @Werner -- wouldn't \text{...} work too? – barbara beeton Dec 7 '17 at 21:55
• @barbarabeeton: Of course, and requires amsmath. – Werner Dec 7 '17 at 22:01
• @Werner Can you remove your duplication mark? The answer to the questions you provided all requires math mode. But I want to do big tilde WITHOUT MATH MODE. – Brian Ding Dec 8 '17 at 18:44
• @BrianDing: You can use \newcommand{\bigtilde}[1]{\ensuremath{\widetilde{\mbox{#1}}}} and then Text \bigtilde{stuff} text without worrying about math mode. Does that work for you? – Werner Dec 8 '17 at 19:00

The brute force method is to scale and position things. The primary advantage of brute force is that is is readily adjustable. Uses package graphicx for \scalebox. Note that this code DOES NOT REQUIRE MATH MODE, as requested.
This line of text sits above the tilde, and may clash without
\raisebox{0.5em}{\strut}\raisebox{0.2em}{\scalebox{3}{\char\~}}\hspace{-1.3em}
`