The letter Ñ, written with a tilde, appears in the Spanish spelling quinceañera.
The ñ is a distinct letter in Spanish, not merely an accented n. In quinceañera, it appears before the final syllable and is pronounced with the palatal nasal sound represented by ñ in Spanish spelling. Correctly retaining it preserves the word’s standard Spanish form.
English-language websites and databases sometimes write quinceanera without the tilde because of older keyboard limitations, search conventions, or plain-text systems. That unaccented form usually refers to the same celebration and is widely understood, but quinceañera is the standard spelling in Spanish.
Diacritics matter in many languages because they can represent different sounds or letters. The tilde in ñ is especially recognizable in Spanish words such as niño, año, and España. In this term, it helps identify the word as Spanish while keeping its traditional spelling intact.