What strikethrough text is
Strikethrough text has a horizontal line drawn through the middle of the letters, like this: S̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶. In print it shows that something was removed or replaced without hiding it. Online, people use it for jokes, price cuts, edits and to-do lists where a finished task is crossed off.
Most apps give you no button for it. Instagram, TikTok, X and most comment boxes accept only plain text. This generator works around that by building the line into the characters themselves, so it survives copy and paste.
How to use this generator
- Type or paste your words into the Your text box. Use Clear to empty it.
- The four strikethrough styles appear at the top in large type and update as you type.
- Press Copy next to the version you want and paste it where you need it.
- If you are posting in an app with its own strikethrough, scroll to Strikethrough codes for apps and copy the code instead.
- The More styles list further down shows your text in every other style on the site, each with its own Copy button.
How the line is made
Unicode has a group of characters called combining marks. They have no space of their own. Instead, they draw on top of the character that comes before them. That is how an accent sits on a letter.
Some combining marks are lines that cross the middle of a character. The generator places one after every letter you type:
| Style | Mark added | Code point |
|---|---|---|
| Strikethrough | long stroke overlay | U+0336 |
| Short Strikethrough | short stroke overlay | U+0335 |
| Tilde Strikethrough | tilde overlay | U+0334 |
| Strikethrough (words only) | long stroke overlay, spaces skipped | U+0336 |
The long stroke is the widest, so neighbouring lines touch and look like one continuous rule. The short stroke leaves small gaps between letters. The tilde version draws a wavy line, which reads as scribbled out rather than neatly deleted.
Examples
These were made with the tool on this page:
| Input | Style | Output |
|---|---|---|
| old price | Strikethrough | o̶l̶d̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶c̶e̶ |
| old price | Short Strikethrough | o̵l̵d̵ ̵p̵r̵i̵c̵e̵ |
| old price | Tilde Strikethrough | o̴l̴d̴ ̴p̴r̴i̴c̴e̴ |
| old price | Strikethrough (words only) | o̶l̶d̶ p̶r̶i̶c̶e̶ |
| Strike this out | Strikethrough | S̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ |
Native strikethrough in apps
Some apps read a short code and draw the line themselves. When you are in one of these apps, the code is the better choice, because the text stays normal underneath. It can be searched, edited and read aloud correctly.
| App | Type this |
|---|---|
| Discord, Reddit, GitHub | ~~text~~ |
~text~ |
|
| Slack | ~text~ |
| Web pages and emails | <s>text</s> |
These codes only work inside the app that understands them. Paste ~~text~~ into an Instagram bio and you will see the tildes, not a line. That is where the Unicode styles at the top come in.
WhatsApp and Slack formatting usually stops at a line break, so the tool wraps each line of a multi-line message separately.
Tips for crossed out text
- Show the change, not just the deletion. A common pattern is to cross out the old word and add the new one after it: “o̶l̶d̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶c̶e̶ new price”. Readers see both at a glance.
- Use the words-only style for lists. When you cross out several items on one line, gaps between words make each item easier to read.
- Keep it short. A whole paragraph of struck text is tiring to read. One or two words make the point.
- Check the result after pasting. A few apps remove combining marks from names and titles. If the line disappears, the app has stripped it.
Limits to know about
The line is not real formatting, so it depends on the font on the reader’s device. On most phones and computers it looks clean. On some older systems the marks can sit a little high or low, or show as small boxes next to each letter.
Screen readers handle combining marks poorly. Some read each mark aloud, some skip them and read the word as if it were not crossed out at all. Either way, the meaning of the strikethrough is lost for those readers. If the crossing out carries meaning, such as a cancelled event, say so in words too.
Every crossed out letter is two characters: the letter plus the mark. Text fields with a character limit will fill up twice as fast. A name field that allows 30 characters will only fit about 15 crossed out letters.
Related tools
For a line under the text instead of through it, use the underline text generator. The slash text generator draws a diagonal line through each letter instead of a flat one. For WhatsApp bold, italic and monospace codes, see the WhatsApp font generator. If you receive crossed out text and want the plain letters back, paste it into the Unicode to text converter.