Strikethrough Text Generator | Line-Through Overlay
Generate strikethrough text using Unicode overlay marks. Choose single, short, tilde, or double strike, with per‑line processing and selective character targeting.
Tool Purpose & Audience
The Strikethrough Text Generator adds a horizontal line through each character using Unicode combining overlay marks, producing crossed-out text that works in any plain-text environment — social media, chat apps, emails, and forums.
Writers, social media users, and content creators use strikethrough text to show corrections, convey irony, add humour ("definitely not procrastinating s̶c̶r̶o̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶"), or create stylistic effects in posts where HTML formatting isn't available. It's also popular for price comparisons in e-commerce copy — showing the old price crossed out next to a new one.
Real-World Use Cases
- Humour and irony on social media: Cross out a word to imply what you really meant — a widely understood internet convention that's instantly recognisable.
- Showing edits and corrections: In plain-text change logs or message threads, strikethrough shows what was removed without deleting the original text.
- Price display in plain-text copy: Show a discounted price alongside a struck-through original price in platform descriptions that don't support HTML.
- Completed task lists: When sharing to-do lists in messaging apps, strikethrough completed items to visually distinguish done from pending — without needing a special app.
Practical Input → Output Examples
1. Long Strikethrough (default)
Input: "bad idea"
Output: "b̶a̶d̶ ̶i̶d̶e̶a̶"
The standard single-line strikethrough — clean and universally recognised.
2. Short/Light Strikethrough
Input: "original price"
Output: "o̵r̵i̵g̵i̵n̵a̵l̵ ̵p̵r̵i̵c̵e̵"
Slightly lighter — some prefer this for editorial corrections where the base text should remain easily legible.
3. Tilde Strikethrough
Input: "finished task"
Output: "f̴i̴n̴i̴s̴h̴e̴d̴ ̴t̴a̴s̴k̴"
A wavy tilde overlay — more decorative and less aggressive than a straight line.
Common Mistakes & Misunderstandings
This is not the same as Markdown strikethrough: Markdown uses ~~text~~ to render strikethrough in supported apps (GitHub, Discord, Reddit). Unicode combining strikethrough works everywhere as plain text but may look slightly different to the Markdown-rendered version.
Platform rendering varies: Some rendering engines draw combining overlays higher or lower depending on the base character. Tall letters like 'h' and 'l' may look fine; descenders like 'g' and 'y' sometimes look inconsistent.
Semantic meaning differs from <del>: HTML's <del> element has semantic meaning (deleted content) that search engines and screen readers understand. Unicode strikethrough is purely visual — it carries no semantic information about deletion or correction.
"Letters only" mode: When "Letters only" is toggled on, spaces and punctuation are left unstyled. This keeps spaces clean but means the strikethrough will appear interrupted around word boundaries.
How does the strikethrough work?
Each character receives an overlay mark (Unicode combining stroke). This preserves plain text and works across most apps and social platforms.
What’s the difference from Slash Text?
Slash Text uses diagonal solidus marks or between-character insertion. Strikethrough uses horizontal overlays for a standard line‑through effect.
Which characters are affected?
Enable Letters Only to target A–Z. Toggle digits and punctuation separately to expand coverage to numbers and symbols.
Will formatting copy correctly?
Yes. The overlay characters are part of the text and copy/paste reliably. Some older fonts may render overlays differently.