Italics in Discord: How to Italicize Text (* or _ + Preview)
How to italicize in Discord
- Wrap the text in single asterisks:
*text*— or single underscores:_text_. Both work identically. - No spaces between the symbols and the words.
- Send. Desktop shortcut: select the text and press Ctrl/Cmd + I.
Asterisk or underscore?
Use asterisks by default. The underscore version has one trap: it only triggers on whole words, so mid_word_underscores stay literal — which is exactly why usernames with underscores don’t accidentally italicise messages.
Italic combinations
***text*** — bold italic. *__text__* — italic underline. *~~text~~* — italic strikethrough. Full matrix in the formatting guide.
Italics in names
Markdown is ignored in names — use the Handwriting (italic) Unicode style from the font generator instead (𝑈𝑚𝑎𝑟).
Italics questions
Why did *text* stay plain in my message?
Either a space snuck in between the asterisk and the word, or your keyboard auto-corrected the asterisk to a different character. Retype the symbols manually.
Why does _this_ work but in_this_word doesn’t?
By design — underscore italics only trigger around whole words so that usernames and file names with underscores render literally.