Strikethrough Text Generator
Type any text below and get it crossed out with U+0336 (combining long stroke overlay), the Unicode mark that draws a horizontal line through every character — for edits, jokes, and Reddit-style strikethrough humor, without needing a font file installed.
Strikethrough is built from U+0336, a combining diacritical mark in the Combining Diacritical Marks block. The tool appends U+0336 after every character, so the system font draws a horizontal line through each glyph. Because it is a combining mark rather than a replacement, it works on letters, digits, punctuation, and emoji alike.
Other styles (live preview)
What strikethrough text actually is
Strikethrough text generated here is not a font. It is your original text with an extra Unicode character — U+0336, combining long stroke overlay — inserted after every visible character. U+0336 lives in the Combining Diacritical Marks block and instructs the system font to draw a horizontal line through the preceding glyph. So the word cat becomes c̶a̶t̶, which to the app is six code points (c, U+0336, a, U+0336, t, U+0336) rather than three. This is the same mechanism underline text uses, just with U+0336 instead of U+0332. The combining-mark approach works on every character, including digits, punctuation, and letters outside the Latin alphabet, and the cost is the same: it doubles the length of the text, since every visible character is followed by an invisible combining mark.
What Unicode strikethrough is useful for
Edits and corrections in plain text
Discord chat, GitHub README, plain email, and form fields have no strikethrough button. Pasting crossed-out Unicode (l̶i̶k̶e̶ t̶h̶i̶s̶) works because each combining mark is just text — the line is drawn by the system font through the preceding character.
Reddit-style humor and retracted thoughts
The crossed-out-then-corrected gag (I love Mondays — wait, no) reads naturally in Discord and chat apps. Strikethrough Unicode lets you do it in any text field, not just Markdown-enabled ones.
Works on every character
Unlike Mathematical Bold or Script, which only cover the Latin alphabet, U+0336 combines with anything — Cyrillic, Greek, digits, punctuation, even emoji. If the base character renders, the line renders through it.
Reliable in code-adjacent spaces
GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and Discord render combining marks consistently. Crossed-out text in a PR description or pinned message reads clearly on desktop and mobile.
Why crossed-out text costs double
Every visible character in strikethrough output is two UTF-16 code units: the original character plus U+0336. Both sit in the BMP, so each is 1 unit — but a 20-character crossed-out word is 40 units, not 20. On platforms that count UTF-16 units (TikTok bios at 80 units, Twitter free tweets at 280), this halves how much text fits. On platforms that count grapheme clusters (Instagram bio at 150), the visible length is closer to the typed length, but the underlying byte count still doubles. Combining marks also affect editing: backspacing through crossed-out text removes the mark first, then the letter, so every character takes two keystrokes to delete. One rendering quirk worth knowing: on mobile Instagram, U+0336 sometimes renders above the character instead of through it, which makes the strikethrough look like an overscore. Discord, GitHub, and Notion render it correctly through the glyph.
Practical notes before you paste
Each crossed-out character is 2 UTF-16 units (the letter + U+0336). A 40-char strikethrough string uses 80 units — TikTok's full bio budget.
Instagram counts grapheme clusters, so crossed-out text looks close to its visible length in the bio counter, even though the underlying byte count doubles.
Backspacing through crossed-out text takes two keystrokes per character — the combining mark deletes first, then the letter.
U+0336 works on any base character: Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, digits, punctuation. Coverage is the main advantage over replacement styles.
Discord chat renders strikethrough Unicode reliably. It is the most popular platform for crossed-out edits and jokes.
On mobile Instagram, U+0336 sometimes renders above the character instead of through it — test before relying on it there.
You can stack strikethrough with bold or italic Unicode, but each stack adds more code units and the result gets visually heavy.
Plain ASCII ranks better in search. Use strikethrough Unicode for display, not for SEO-critical text.
Platform compatibility
Strikethrough Unicode renders on iOS 13+, Android 8+, modern Windows, macOS, and every major browser, with one quirk: on mobile Instagram, U+0336 sometimes renders above the character instead of through it, which makes the line look like an overscore. Discord is the most reliable platform — crossed-out text renders correctly in chat, channel names, and custom status on both desktop and mobile, and strikethrough humor is a Discord convention. GitHub renders it in README, issue, and PR bodies. Notion renders it in body text. TikTok accepts it in display names (30 chars) and bios (80 UTF-16 units), where the doubled unit cost bites — a 40-character crossed-out bio uses the full 80 units. Twitter/X renders it correctly in the timeline. Steam persona names render strikethrough inconsistently.