Strikethrough Text Generator

A strikethrough text generator draws a line through your words using a Unicode combining character, not a formatting tag.

That means the crossed-out look works in places that normally block strikethrough formatting, like Instagram bios, Discord usernames, and comment sections that strip HTML.

The tool attaches a combining long stroke overlay to every letter you type. Because the strike mark is a real character sitting on top of each letter, the line stays connected across the whole word once pasted.

That is different from an image-based strikethrough, which can break apart when a font changes.

The strike character comes from the Combining Diacritical Marks block, the same U+0300 to U+036F range that powers accents on letters like é and ñ.

The Unicode Consortium designed this block for linguistic marks. The long stroke overlay used here is one of several marks in that range repurposed for visual effect rather than pronunciation.

It was added to Unicode as a general-purpose diacritical mark, not specifically for showing a crossed-out price. Its adoption for that purpose grew naturally once people realized a single reusable character could fake a strikethrough effect anywhere.

Each mark simply attaches to whatever character comes immediately before it. Applying the same mark to every letter in a word happens to produce a continuous-looking line, purely as a side effect of how the marks stack visually.

People use strikethrough text to show a crossed-out price, a joke correction, a sarcastic aside, or a to-do item marked done inside a plain text list.

It is a quick way to signal "this is no longer true" without needing a rich text editor or a screenshot.

Online sellers use strikethrough text to show a discounted price next to the original, crossing out the old number in a listing that does not support rich formatting.

Group chat organizers strike through completed to-do items directly in a plain text message. Comedy accounts often strike through a sentence and follow it with a joke correction.

Use strikethrough on short phrases like a price, a single word, or a short to-do item rather than a long sentence, since the combining mark can look uneven across many words.

Strikethrough text can look uneven in fonts that space combining marks differently, sometimes leaving small gaps between letters. It also adds an extra character per letter, which can matter on platforms with strict limits.

Always test the pasted result in the destination app, since some messaging platforms space the strike mark more tightly than others.

A common mistake is assuming strikethrough Unicode text works like a formatting tag. It is actually a separate character attached to each letter, so it cannot be toggled on and off after pasting.

Another is applying it to emoji, which often does not connect the strike mark properly since emoji render as image-like glyphs rather than standard letters.

A third: applying strikethrough to a whole block of text meant to be permanently removed, when a simple delete communicates the same intent more clearly. Strikethrough works best when the crossed-out content still needs to stay visible for context.

Screen readers generally announce strikethrough Unicode text as the plain letters with an added accent sound, which can be confusing without context. This differs from real strikethrough formatting, which some assistive tools can announce with an actual spoken cue.

For any content where a crossed-out meaning matters to a listener, consider adding a spoken cue like "crossed out" instead of relying on the visual mark alone.

Compare strikethrough to the glitch text generator, which uses the same combining mark system but stacks multiple marks for a distorted look instead of a single clean line.

Strikethrough text and the case converter pair naturally in a to-do list workflow, cleaning up casing on a task before marking it crossed out once complete.

If you want to underline instead of strike through, the cursive text generator pairs well for a stylized crossed-out signature look.