Discord Fonts and Text Formatting: Strikethrough, Bold, Underline and Italics
Learning Discord strikethrough and other text formatting tricks can make your messages stand out in any channel. The most popular desktop messengers from a few years ago are now history; G Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger are all gone. That’s not to say that desktop messengers are now extinct. There are still plenty of messaging apps that you can use on your desktop, and these apps have mobile counterparts that allow you to carry on a conversation from a mobile device when you leave your desktop. What we have now are desktop messaging apps that are popular with certain types of users.
Discord Fonts
Discord is popular in the gaming community. It’s used in work-place settings as well but its reputation pits it as the go-to messaging platform for gamers. That said, the messaging app doesn’t limit itself in any way and has features that allow it to compete with other messaging apps like Slack, Telegram, and even Skype.
It’s available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. There’s also an app for iOS and Android. If you’re customizing your account, the Discord profile image guide can help. The messaging app supports group messaging, and audio and video calls, as well as basic text messaging. It allows users to join servers which is what makes it popular among gamers and anyone looking for casual communities to connect with. It also has support for Markdown that allows users to stylize text sent over a message.
Discord Text Formatting
Text sent over a Discord channel can be stylized so that it appears bold, in italics, underlined, or struckthrough. It also supports code blocks, and our guide to discord text formatting covers the broader set of styling options. If you’re unable to post because of Discord message sending restrictions, you’ll need to fix that first. Discord uses Markdown as the universal method for formatting text, but current desktop and web builds may also surface formatting controls — such as a strikethrough or cross-out button — when you highlight already-typed text in the compose box or right-click it for a context menu.
Keep in mind that the availability of these UI shortcuts depends on your Discord version, so the Markdown syntax (like ~~text~~ for Discord strikethrough) remains the most reliable method across every client and platform. According to Discord’s official Markdown guide, the tilde syntax is the standard way to apply strikethrough formatting across all supported clients.
Discord Strikethrough: 2 Ways to Cross Out Text
If you landed here just to cross out text in Discord, here are the two methods that work, plus a note on how to handle mobile.
Method 1 — Desktop and Web UI (version-dependent)
- Open Discord on your desktop app or in a browser and navigate to the channel, DM, or group chat where you want to send the message.
- Type your full message in the compose box but do not press Enter yet.
- Click and drag to highlight the specific word or phrase you want to cross out.
- If a formatting toolbar appears above the highlighted text, click the strikethrough button (an S with a line through it) or right-click the highlighted text and choose Cross Out if that option appears in the context menu.
- Press Enter to send your message.
If the toolbar or context-menu option does not appear in your version of Discord, use Method 2 below — it always works for applying Discord strikethrough formatting.
Method 2 — Markdown Syntax for Discord Strikethrough (universal, works everywhere)
- Open Discord and navigate to the channel, DM, or group chat where you want to send the message.
- In the compose box, type two tilde characters (
~~) immediately before the text you want to cross out. Do not add a space between the tildes and your text. - Type the word or phrase you want to appear struckthrough.
- Type two more tilde characters (
~~) immediately after the text, again with no space. - Press Enter to send. Discord will render the text with a line through it.
~~This is crossed out~~
Strikethrough on Mobile
The formatting toolbar UI shortcut is typically absent on Discord’s mobile app. To apply Discord strikethrough on iPhone or Android, switch to the symbols or numbers keyboard (tap the 123 or #+= key), type two tildes (~~), enter your text, then type two more tildes (~~) before tapping Send.
The Markdown method (~~text~~) works in DMs, group chats, and server channels across all platforms.
Discord Bold, Italics, Bold Italics, Underline, and Strikethrough
In order to format text in Discord, you need to surround the text with the right characters.
- Open Discord and select a friend or a channel to send a message over.
- Enter the message you want to enter but don’t send it.
- Use the table below and surround the text with the characters needed to stylize it.
- Tap Enter.
| Style | Syntax |
|---|---|
| Bold | ** |
| Italics | * |
| Bold Italics | *** |
| Underline | __ |
| Bold Italics Underlined | __*** |
| Strikethrough | ~~ |
| Bold, Italics, Underline, and Strikethrough | __~~*** |
Examples
Copy and paste the following examples in Discord to see them in action. Make sure you include the special characters when copying and pasting the text.
Bold: Use two asterisks on both sides of the text.
**This message will appear bold in Discord**
Italics: Use a single asterisk or a single underscore on both sides of the text.
*This message will appear in italics* _This message will also appear in italics_
Bold Italics: Use three asterisks on both ends of the text.
***This text will be bold, and in italics***
Underline: Use two underscores on both ends of the text.
__This text will be underlined__
Bold, Italics, and Underline: Use two underscores and three asterisks on both ends of text to apply all three styles to it.
__***This text will be bold, in italics, and it will be underlined***__
Discord Strikethrough: Add two tilde characters to both ends of the text. The tilde character can normally be entered from the key directly above the Tab key on a QWERTY keyboard by holding down Shift.
~~This text will appear struckthrough~~
Bold, Italics, Underline, and Strikethrough: Use two underscores, two tildes, and three asterisks around the text to apply all four styles.
__~~***This text will be bold, in italics, underlined, and struckthrough***~~__
Strikethrough on Desktop, Web, and Mobile
The good news is that Discord strikethrough works the same way across all platforms — the ~~text~~ syntax is supported in the Discord desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux), the Discord web app, and the Discord mobile app on iPhone and Android. A few platform-specific notes to keep in mind:
- Desktop and web app: Type
~~text~~directly in the compose box. Some clients also show a formatting toolbar when you highlight already-typed text, which may include a strikethrough button. - iPhone and Android: The tilde (
~) character is not on the default alphabetic keyboard. Tap the symbols or numbers keyboard (usually the 123 or #+= key) to find it, then type two tildes before and after your text as normal. - Most reliable method across all platforms and versions: The markdown syntax
~~text~~is the universal fallback for Discord strikethrough. If a formatting toolbar button is unavailable or doesn’t appear in your client, this approach will always work.
Codeblocks
To send a code block over Discord, you need to use the backtick character. This character is entered from the key above the Tab key on a normal QWERTY keyboard.
- For a single line of code, use one backtick on both ends of the code.
- For code blocks that have multiple lines of code, use three backticks on both ends of code.
Example
Single line of code
`#!/bin/bash`
Multiple lines of code
```#!/bin/bash echo "Stay Home"```
How Code Blocks Interact with Discord Strikethrough
One common reason Discord strikethrough appears to “not work” is that the text is inside a code block. Markdown formatting like ~~text~~ does not render inside inline code (single backticks) or fenced code blocks (triple backticks) — Discord displays the raw characters instead of applying the style. Here is how the difference looks in practice:
- Normal message: Typing
~~crossed out~~in a regular message renders ascrossed out. - Inside an inline code span: Typing
`~~crossed out~~`shows the literal text~~crossed out~~with no strikethrough applied. - Inside a triple-backtick block: The same rule applies — all markdown formatting is suppressed and the raw syntax is displayed as-is.
This behavior is actually useful if you want to teach someone the Discord strikethrough syntax: wrap the example in backticks and Discord will display the tildes literally rather than rendering them as formatting.
Advanced Code-Block Formatting: Colored Text
It is possible to make text appear in different colors inside Discord, but this is not a native text formatting feature like bold or Discord strikethrough. These techniques work by exploiting the syntax highlighting that Discord applies to fenced code blocks — the color you see is determined by how a specific programming language highlighter interprets the text, not by any built-in color tool.
Because of this, results can vary depending on the client version and the user’s theme, and the colored text always appears inside a code block, not as a regular chat message. With that context in mind, here is how the technique works:
- Open Discord and click inside the text input field for a friend or channel
- Add three backticks at the very start of your message.
- Use the table below to pick the command for the color you want to use, and add it after the three backticks.
- Enter the message you want to send and use the correct text marker (see table).
- Add three backticks to the end of the message.
- Send the message.
| Color | Command | Text marker |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | ini | Enclose text in square brackets [] |
| Cyan | json | Enclose text in double quote marks “” |
| Lime green | diff | Add a plus + at the start of text |
| Orange | css | Enclose text in square brackets [] |
| Red | diff | Add a hyphen – at the start of text |
| Yellow | fix | None |
Example
Blue
```ini [This text will be blue] ```
Cyan
```json "This text will be cyan" ```
Lime green
```diff +This text will be lime green ```
Orange
```css [This text will be orange] ```
Red
```diff -This text will be red ```
Yellow
```fix This text will be yellow ```
Advanced Code-Block Formatting: Highlight Text
Like colored text above, text highlighting in Discord is another code-block syntax-highlighting trick rather than a native formatting option. It works by using the tex language identifier inside a fenced code block, which causes Discord’s highlighter to apply a yellow highlight to content preceded by a dollar sign. Keep in mind this will not work outside of a code block, and the appearance may differ depending on the Discord client and theme the recipient is using.
To highlight text sent over Discord:
- Open Discord and click inside a text input field.
- Enter three backticks and add tex after it.
- Move to the next line, and add a dollar sign.
- Enter your message after the dollar sign.
- Move to the next line, and add three backticks.
- Tap Enter to send the message.
Example
```tex $This will be highlighted ```
Other Discord Markdown Features Beyond Strikethrough
Beyond Discord strikethrough and the core text styles, Discord’s chat now supports several additional Markdown features that the official Help Center treats as standard. Here is a rundown of each one, including the exact syntax and any spacing or line-start rules that affect whether the formatting actually renders.
Headers
Place one, two, or three hash symbols at the very start of a line, followed by a space, to create a large, medium, or small header. The space after the hash is required — without it Discord treats the line as plain text.
# Big header ## Medium header ### Small header
Subtext
Start a line with -# followed by a space to render smaller, de-emphasised text beneath a message — useful for adding a caption or note. Like headers, this must appear at the very beginning of the line with a space after the marker.
-# This appears as small subtext
Masked Links
Wrap your display text in square brackets and immediately follow it with the URL in parentheses to create a clickable link that shows custom text instead of a raw URL. Note that masked links only render in channels where embeds are enabled; they will not work in every server context.
[Visit AddictiveTips](https://www.addictivetips.com)
Lists
Start a line with a hyphen (-), asterisk (*), or a number followed by a period (1.) to create a bulleted or numbered list. A space after the marker is required for Discord to render the list item correctly. Each list item must be on its own line.
- First item - Second item * Another bullet 1. First numbered item 2. Second numbered item
Block Quotes
Place a greater-than symbol (>) at the start of a line to quote a single line of text. Use three greater-than symbols (>>>) at the start of a line to turn everything that follows — until you send the message — into a multi-line block quote. A space after the marker is recommended for consistent rendering.
> This is a single-line quote >>> This is the first line of a multi-line quote This line is also part of the same block quote And so is this one
Conclusion
Using Markdown to format text in Discord isn’t difficult. Whether you’re applying Discord strikethrough with the ~~text~~ syntax or combining bold, italics, and underline, you might need to reference the syntax when you first start but you’ll learn it quickly.
The color and highlight techniques shown above are code-block tricks that rely on syntax highlighting rather than native Discord features, so they are a bit trickier to use and may render differently depending on the client and theme. Still, many users prefer this method for formatting text instead of utilizing regular buttons that you’ll find in more sophisticated text input fields. Discord does not natively support arbitrary colored text in regular messages outside of these code-block workarounds.
