Text formatting

Discord reads a small set of markers around a span of text. The markers disappear when you send the message; the span keeps the style. The opening and closing marker must match, and the text between them must not be empty. Every rule below works in a normal message.

Bold

Wrap the span in two asterisks. The opening pair starts the bold run and the closing pair ends it. The same pair works inside a sentence, so you do not need a line of its own. You can bold a single word, a phrase, or a whole line.

**bold**

Use bold for a phrase or a whole line. A paragraph set entirely in bold is harder to read, so reserve it for the span that matters.

Italic

Use one asterisk or one underscore on each side. The two markers are interchangeable: *text* and _text_ produce the same italic span. Use the underscore form when the surrounding sentence already uses asterisks for bold, so the pairs are easier to count.

*italic* and _also italic_

Underline and strikethrough

Two underscores underline. Two tildes strike through. The doubled marker matters: _text_ is italic, while __text__ is underline. Discord draws the line itself; the underscores and tildes never appear.

__underlined__ and ~~struck through~~

Strikethrough suits a correction or a crossed-out plan. Underline is heavier, so it works best on a short span.

Combining markers

Markers nest. Three asterisks make bold italic, and an underline can wrap a bold span. The outer pair sets the first style and the inner pair adds the second.

__***bold, underlined and italic***__

***bold italic***, __**bold underline**__, and __*underline italic*__ combine two styles; __***all three***__ stacks all three. Keep the pairs balanced and close them in the reverse order you opened them. __**bold**__ is valid; __**bold__** is not.

Escaping

A backslash before a marker prints the marker instead of applying it. Inline code does the same for everything inside it, which is easier when you need to show a whole run of markers. The backslash itself does not appear.

\*not italic\* and `**not bold**`

Escaping works on the markers covered here, so you can write a literal ** or ~~ without opening a style. A backslash only affects the character immediately after it; it is not a switch that turns off formatting for the rest of the line.

Watch out

__text__ is underline, not bold. Use **text** when you want bold; double underscores will draw a line under the words instead. A single underscore is italic and a double underscore is underline, so the count changes the style, not the strength. Keep the markers against the text as well; a space immediately inside a pair is the other common reason a span stays plain.