This holds the same value of the environment variable called $HOME:

zarrelli:~$ echo ~
/home/zarrelli
zarrelli:~$ ls /home/zarrelli/
Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates test.file test.sh tmp Videos
zarrelli:~$ ls ~/tmp/
setting.sh
zarrelli:~$ cd ~
zarrelli:~$ pwd
/home/zarrelli