The tilde doesn't have any special meaning in groovy or Java regular expressions. Groovy doesn't change the Java interpretation of regexs at all. All the special characters for are listed on the API reference page for java.util.regex.Pattern.

If you remove the \p{Alnum} character class and the escaped tilde, you can more easily see that ~ isn't being treated specially:

assert ("D" ==~ "(?:[^äöü~D~V~_])") == false
assert ("V" ==~ "(?:[^äöü~D~V~_])") == false
assert ("~" ==~ "(?:[^äöü~D~V~_])") == false
assert (" " ==~ "(?:[^äöü~D~V~_])") == true

I'd throw away these regexs. They're clearly wrong and obfuscated with extra characters. Word boundaries can be matched with \b and the \p{Alnum}äöü should almost certainly be \p{Alphabetic}\p{Digit} to handle unicode properly.

Answer from ataylor on Stack Overflow
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Regular-Expressions.info
regular-expressions.info › groovy.html
Using Regular Expressions in Groovy
You use these classes in Groovy just like you do in Java. But Groovy does provide some special syntax that allows you to create those instances with much less typing. To create a Pattern instance, simply place a tilde before the string with your regular expression.
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Mrhaki
blog.mrhaki.com › 2009 › 09 › groovy-goodness-using-regular.html
Groovy Goodness: Using Regular Expression Pattern Class - Messages from mrhaki
September 11, 2025 - To define a regular expression pattern in Groovy we can use the tilde (~) operator for a String. The result is a java.util.regex.Pattern object. The rules to define the pattern are the same as when we do it in Java code.
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Wjw465150
wjw465150.github.io › blog › Groovy › my_data › Goodness › Regular-Using Regular Expression Pattern Class.htm
Groovy Goodness: Using Regular Expression Pattern Class
To define a regular expression pattern in Groovy we can use the tilde (~) operator for a String. The result is a java.util.regex.Pattern object. The rules to define the pattern are the same as when we do it in Java code. We can invoke all standard methods on the Pattern object.
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Szymon Stepniak
e.printstacktrace.blog › home › groovy cookbook › groovy regular expressions - the definitive guide (part 1)
Groovy Regular Expressions - The Definitive Guide (Part 1)
May 8, 2020 - Groovy makes working with regex very simple, thanks to the find operator (=~), exact match operator (==~), or slashy strings (e.g. /\d+\.\d+\.\d+/) that make writing regular expressions as simple as possible.
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Java Code Geeks
examples.javacodegeeks.com › home › jvm languages › groovy
Groovy Regex Example - Java Code Geeks
March 29, 2019 - When you define a pattern by using tilda operator, you will get a result in a type java.util.regex.Pattern. And this means, you can apply all the rules that you do in Java code. You can see quick example below. ... package com.javacodegeeks.groovy.regex class GroovyRegex { static main(args) { def ipAddress = ~/([0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+)/ println ipAddress.class.name // java.util.regex.Pattern } }
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TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com › groovy › groovy_regular_expressions.htm
Groovy - Regular Expressions
A regular expression is a pattern that is used to find substrings in text. Groovy supports regular expressions natively using the ~regex expression. The text enclosed within the quotations represent the expression for comparison.
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Mytectra
mytectra.com › tutorials › groovy › strings-and-regular-expressions
Groovy - Strings and Regular Expressions
Groovy supports regular expressions through the '=~' operator and various methods in the 'java.util.regex' package.
Find elsewhere
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Baeldung
baeldung.com › home › groovy › pattern matching in strings in groovy
Pattern Matching in Strings in Groovy | Baeldung
March 26, 2025 - Most of the time, and especially when writing tests, we’re not really interested in creating Pattern objects, but instead, want to check if a String matches a certain regular expression (or Pattern). Groovy, therefore, also contains the match operator ==~. It returns a boolean and performs a strict match against the specified regular expression. Basically, it’s a syntactic shortcut over calling Pattern.matches(regex, string).
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Top Mini Sites
topminisite.com › home › programming › how to use regular expressions in groovy?
How to Use Regular Expressions In Groovy in 2024?
To use regular expressions in Groovy, ... by the language. You can create a regular expression pattern by using the tilde operator (~) followed by the desired regex pattern enclosed in forward slashes (/)....
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Gr8labs
gr8labs.org › getting-groovy
Getting Groovy - Gr8Labs
June 12, 2014 - Groovy uses Java’s regular expression support, but makes it more easy with three new operators: Define a pattern from a string with the tilde (~) operator.
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DEV Community
dev.to › awwsmm › the-power-of-regular-expressions-30in
The Power of Regular Expressions - DEV Community
October 8, 2018 - Remember that nothing in life is simple, so there are lots of different regex variations (or "flavors"), with support for different features. I'll try to stick to things which are common to all flavors, but I'll make a note of when that's not the case. A regular expression is a sequence of characters which defines a pattern. That pattern can be searched for within other character sequences (or strings). A regular expression can be as simple as · groovy:000> stringToSearch = "A string that contains the letter 'z'." ===> A string that contains the letter 'z'. groovy:000> thingToFind = stringToSearch =~ /z/ ===> java.util.regex.Matcher[pattern=z region=0,38 lastmatch=] groovy:000> thingToFind.find() ===> true groovy:000> thingToFind.start() ===> 35 groovy:000> stringToSearch[35] ===> z
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TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com › groovy › groovy_matches.htm
Groovy - String matches() method
class Example { static void main(String[] args) { String RegexExpression = "[a-zA-Z ]+"; String s1 = "Tutorials Point is a reputed firm"; String s2 = "Tutori@ls && Po!nt is @ reputed f!rm"; String s3 = "Tutorials Point is a reputed firm 766868"; boolean Match1 = s1.matches("[a-zA-Z ]+"); boolean Match2 = s2.matches("[a-zA-Z ]+"); boolean Match3 = s3.matches("[a-zA-Z ]+"); println("Is the string having only alphabets: " + Match1); println("Is the string having only alphabets: " + Match2); println("Is the string having only alphabets: " + Match3); } }
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Jarombek
jarombek.com › blog › jul-11-2018-groovy-regex
How Do Regular Expressions in Groovy Stack Up?
July 11, 2018 - Groovy takes Java's approach to regular expressions and simplifies the syntax with the use of operators. Groovy developers simply use the find, match, and pattern operators instead of learning the java.util.regex API.
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MojoAuth
mojoauth.com › escaping › regex-escaping-in-groovy
Regex Escaping in Groovy | Escaping Methods in Programming Languages
In Groovy, regex escaping involves prefixing special characters with a backslash (``). This tells the regex engine to interpret the character literally.
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Groovy
docs.groovy-lang.org › latest › html › api › org › codehaus › groovy › runtime › StringGroovyMethods.html
StringGroovyMethods (Groovy 5.0.6)
Processes each regex group matched substring of the given pattern. If the closure parameter takes one argument, an array with all match groups is passed to it.
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Groovy
docs.groovy-lang.org › docs › next › html › documentation › core-operators.html
Operators
April 21, 2026 - The pattern operator (~) provides a simple way to create a java.util.regex.Pattern instance: ... while in general, you find the pattern operator with an expression in a slashy-string, it can be used with any kind of String in Groovy:
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Blazemeter
blazemeter.com › blog › groovy-regex
How to Use Groovy RegEx For Testing | Perforce BlazeMeter
In this article, I will show you how to use Groovy RegEx (Regular Expressions) when performance testing an API response with JMeter.
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InfoWorld
infoworld.com › home › software development
Regular Expressions in Groovy (via Java) | InfoWorld
December 30, 2010 - He similarly covers Groovy handling of Patterns in the post Groovy Goodness: Using Regular Expression Pattern Class. ... The ability to use more natural-looking (at least by regular expressions standards) regular expressions, the ability to use operators rather than APIs and method calls, and the extra “smarts” added to GDK’s extensions of the Java RegEx library make using regular expressions in Groovy easier and more natural to the people who are probably most familiar with regular expressions: script writers.