Strikethrough Text Generator

Type or paste your text

Crossing out a word is a quick way to show a correction, a joke, or a “nevermind” without deleting it. A strikethrough text generator does this anywhere, even on platforms like Instagram or Discord that don’t have a built-in strikethrough button. Type your words above, and this tool adds a line through every letter using Unicode, ready to copy and paste.

This isn’t a formatting style you turn on and off, it’s a real Unicode character attached to each letter, so the struck-through look stays intact wherever you paste it, even in apps with no text-formatting options at all.

This page covers how the effect works, which overlay style to pick, and when a real strikethrough feature is the better choice.

Printed manuscript page with handwritten editing marks and crossed-out text — Photo: Phoebe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How the Strikethrough Text Generator Works

This tool uses combining characters, Unicode symbols designed to sit on top of the letter before them rather than take up space of their own. The default look uses a long stroke overlay, drawn across the full letter. Two variants are also available: a shorter diagonal slash, and a tilde-style squiggle for a more casual, joking tone.

Because the strikethrough is a character, not a formatting toggle, you can’t “remove” it after pasting, you’d need to retype or paste the original, unconverted text instead.

Picking a Strikethrough Style

Style	Best for
Long stroke (classic)	Corrections, crossed-out prices, formal “nevermind” text.
Short slash	A lighter, less heavy-looking line.
Tilde / squiggle	Jokes, sarcasm, a more playful tone.

Where Strikethrough Text Works Best

Strikethrough Unicode text displays correctly on Discord, X, Instagram, and most messaging apps, since it’s just styled plain text. It’s a weaker fit for long paragraphs, since combining characters can stack or misrender in some fonts over many words, and for documents in Word or Google Docs, which already have a real strikethrough formatting option that’s more reliable there.

Accessibility and Compatibility

Screen readers can struggle with combining characters, sometimes reading each overlay symbol separately instead of smoothly as “crossed-out” text, based on general accessibility guidance from WebAIM. Keep this style to short, non-essential text, and use a platform’s built-in strikethrough formatting where one is available. See our Fancy Text Accessibility guide for more on this across every style on this site.

Getting a Clean Result

Use strikethrough text for short phrases, not full paragraphs.
Preview on your target platform first, since combining marks can look different across apps.
Use a real strikethrough formatting option instead when one is available, like in Word or Docs.

More Styles to Try

Underline Text Generator, add emphasis instead of crossing out
Bold Text Generator, clean emphasis without symbols
Small Caps Generator, a subtler stylistic option
Unicode Symbols, browse more copyable characters

FAQ

No. It attaches a Unicode combining character to each letter, so it works as plain text anywhere, including apps with no formatting options like Instagram bios.

Not by editing the pasted text. You’d need to go back to the original, unconverted version and paste that instead.

Mostly, but combining characters can render slightly differently across fonts and apps, especially on older devices. Preview it on your target platform first.

That’s a font rendering quirk with combining characters, not an error in the conversion. Trying a different overlay style (slash or tilde) sometimes looks cleaner in a specific app.

Yes, it’s free with no sign-up. The conversion happens in your browser, and nothing you type is logged or stored.

Final Thoughts

A strikethrough text generator brings a real editing gesture, crossing something out, to platforms that don’t support formatting at all, using combining Unicode characters that paste cleanly anywhere. Pick the overlay that fits your tone, keep it to short phrases, and use a platform’s built-in strikethrough when one is available.