diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index e5197e6b04..afdeb16cd9 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ New Languages:
 
 Language Improvements:
 
+- enh(shell) Recognize prompts which contain tilde `~` (#2859) [Guillaume Grossetie][]
 - enh(shell) Add support for multiline commands with line continuation `\` (#2861) [Guillaume Grossetie][]
 - enh(autodetect) Over 30+ improvements to auto-detect (#2745) [Josh Goebel][]
     - 4-5% improvement in auto-detect against large sample set
diff --git a/src/languages/shell.js b/src/languages/shell.js
index 7e833ee768..2c713da19d 100644
--- a/src/languages/shell.js
+++ b/src/languages/shell.js
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@ export default function(hljs) {
     contains: [
       {
         className: 'meta',
-        begin: /^\s{0,3}[/\w\d[\]()@-]*[>%$#]/,
+        // We cannot add \s (spaces) in the regular expression otherwise it will be too broad and produce unexpected result.
+        // For instance, in the following example, it would match "echo /path/to/home >" as a prompt:
+        // echo /path/to/home > t.exe
+        begin: /^\s{0,3}[/~\w\d[\]()@-]*[>%$#]/,
         starts: {
           end: /[^\\](?=\s*$)/,
           subLanguage: 'bash'
diff --git a/test/markup/shell/prompt-with-tilde.expected.txt b/test/markup/shell/prompt-with-tilde.expected.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..57af2ff5de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/markup/shell/prompt-with-tilde.expected.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+<span class="hljs-meta">~/docs&gt;</span><span class="bash"> cat readme.adoc</span>
+= Highlight.js
+
+Highlight.js is a syntax highlighter written in JavaScript.
diff --git a/test/markup/shell/prompt-with-tilde.txt b/test/markup/shell/prompt-with-tilde.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ddbfcf84e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/markup/shell/prompt-with-tilde.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+~/docs> cat readme.adoc
+= Highlight.js
+
+Highlight.js is a syntax highlighter written in JavaScript.