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Bold and Italic in Markdown

Make text bold in Markdown by wrapping it in two asterisks (**bold**) and italic by wrapping it in one (*italic*). Three asterisks give you both: ***bold italic***.

Emphasis syntax

Asterisks and underscores are interchangeable for emphasis, but asterisks are the safer default: underscores inside words (like snake_case_names) are not treated as emphasis by GitHub Flavored Markdown, while asterisks are.

*italic* or _italic_
**bold** or __bold__
***bold and italic***

Emphasis inside words

To bold part of a word, you must use asterisks: "un**believ**able" works, "un__believ__able" does not in GFM.

un**believ**able

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use asterisks or underscores for bold in Markdown?

Asterisks. They behave consistently across parsers and work mid-word, whereas underscores are ignored inside words by GitHub Flavored Markdown.

How do I underline text in Markdown?

Standard Markdown has no underline syntax. If your target output is HTML, embed the HTML tag directly: <u>underlined</u>. Most parsers, including GitHub, pass inline HTML through.

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