Strikethrough Text Generator

Some words are meant to be crossed out, not deleted. Type a word in the box above and this strikethrough text generator draws one clean line through it, so the old word stays visible while the new meaning takes over. A joke lands harder, an old price looks honestly old, and a finished task feels finished, all with a single line you can copy in one tap.

A strikethrough text generator adds a struck line through plain words using a combining mark, so the crossed out text copies and pastes into bios, posts, captions and comments anywhere plain text is accepted, for jokes, corrections, old prices and finished tasks.

What the line actually is

The line is not a font, and it is not a picture of a line. It is a real Unicode character, the combining long stroke overlay, added after each letter you type. When you type “Sale”, the generator does not replace the letters. It keeps S, a, l and e exactly as they are, and places one stroke mark after each one. Your phone then draws those marks as a single line running through the word, which is why the result reads as S̶a̶l̶e̶.

That detail matters for everything else on this page. Because the letters underneath never change, the word is still the same word to anything that reads characters rather than pictures. Copy the struck word into a note, a comment or a bio, and the letters travel with the line. Paste it into an app with no font menu at all, and the line travels too, because plain text carries combining marks wherever it goes. The full mark lives in the Unicode combining diacritical marks chart, which defines the stroke used here.

Spaces are the one exception, and it is worth seeing plainly. A space carries no stroke, so the line breaks at each word gap. A two word phrase shows two struck words with a clean gap between them, not one unbroken line across the whole phrase. That gap is normal, and it is how readers tell where one struck word ends and the next begins.

Crossed out words you can copy as they are

Here are finished examples from the generator itself, each one built for a job readers actually use. Every example below uses the single straight strike, the cleanest of the crossed looks.

Digits take the mark just like letters do, so a struck price keeps its number readable under the line. The old number is crossed out, not hidden, so a reader can still see what it was.

The three crossed looks, and when to pick each one

One line is not the only crossed look on the Effects shelf, and picking the wrong one weakens the joke or the edit. The three looks below all come from the same idea, a mark after each letter, but they read very differently on a screen.

The single strike, for edits that must stay readable

The single strike is the default on this page, and it should stay your default. The line is straight, even and easy to follow, so a struck word stays readable at a glance. Use it for corrections, old prices, done lists and any edit where the reader must still read the old word. If you are unsure which look to pick, pick this one.

The wavy strike, for playful crossed words

The wavy strike draws a rippled line through each letter, so C̴r̴o̴s̴s̴e̴d̴ O̴u̴t̴ reads softer and more playful than the straight strike. It suits jokes, teasing and casual captions, where the crossing out is part of the humour rather than a serious edit. It is harder to scan than the straight line, so keep wavy struck words short, one or two words at most.

The slashed look, for cancelled plans

The slashed look draws a diagonal slash through each letter, so C̸a̸n̸c̸e̸l̸l̸e̸d̸ reads like a stamp across the word. It suits cancelled plans, rejected ideas and dramatic “never mind” lines. The diagonal marks can crowd small letters, so test a slashed word on your own phone before you put it in a permanent bio or name.

The rule across all three is simple. Straight for edits, wavy for jokes, slashed for cancellations. A reader should never have to work out which kind of crossing out you meant.

Where crossed out text earns its place

Jokes are the first home. A sentence that says one thing and crosses it out says two things at once, and the second one is the punchline. “Not Today” with a line through it, followed by the real plan in plain text, reads funnier than either line alone. Keep the struck part short, so the joke lands before the reader has to work for it.

Corrections are the second home. When you change your mind in public, crossing out the old word shows the change instead of hiding it. A post that reads “Old Price” struck through, then the new price in plain text, is more honest than a post that was quietly edited. Readers trust a visible correction more than a silent one.

Old prices and sold out lines are the third home. A shop post, a sale caption or a ticket note gains credibility when the old price stays visible under the line. The struck “Price 50” in the table above works because the reader can still read 50. Never strike a price and then hide it behind another style, or the honesty that makes the trick work disappears.

Done lists are the fourth home. A to do list with each finished item struck through shows progress at a glance. The text generator for mixing struck lines into longer posts keeps a whole list styled while your struck lines drop in where they belong. One struck line per finished item is enough.

Before and after edits are the fifth home. Inside a longer note, one struck word followed by its replacement shows the edit in the open: the old choice, the line, the new choice.

The honest limits of struck text

Struck text has limits, and they are worth knowing before you build a bio around it. First, rendering varies. Most modern phones and browsers draw the stroke as one even line, but some systems draw it slightly higher or lower on certain letters, so a long struck sentence can look uneven. Test any struck line on your own phone before you commit to it, and keep struck lines short where the line matters most.

Second, screen readers generally read the plain letters, not the line. A struck word is still its letters underneath, so a reader using a screen reader will usually hear the word itself, with no announcement that it was crossed out. If the crossing out carries meaning a reader must not miss, say it in plain text too. Write “Sold out” in plain words next to the struck line, or put the key fact in the sentence after it.

Third, search usually matches the plain letters. Because the letters underneath stay the same, a struck word can still match its plain spelling in many apps. Do not rely on that in every app, though. Some apps and forms clean up pasted text and drop combining marks entirely, leaving the plain word behind.

Fourth, struck text is not a way to hide text. Anyone can still read the letters under the line, and copying the struck word copies the plain letters too. Never strike out a password, a private name or anything you actually need hidden. Crossing out shows a change of mind. It never deletes.

How to use the tool

Type your word or short phrase in the box above. The tool opens on the Effects shelf, where the strikethrough effect sits with its wavy and slashed neighbours, so you can compare the three crossed looks before you copy. Pick the single strike result for edits and prices, tap to copy, and paste it where the crossed word belongs. If the line looks uneven on your phone, shorten the phrase and try again, because a short struck word renders cleanly far more often than a long struck sentence.

For a finished post, write the plain sentence first, then strike only the words that changed, then read it back on your phone. The instagram fonts for crossed out bio lines page orders these looks for profiles specifically, and the cool text generator for decorated caption styles carries the decorated caption styles when a crossed word needs a softer frame around it.

When a clean line is not dramatic enough, the glitch text generator for stacked and chaotic effects is the place for stacked chaos, and the font generator charts for the full alphabet library shows every alphabet the site offers.

The fancy text generator with every style in one place carries the full library when you want to compare the crossed line with every other style before you commit to a struck word.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions readers ask most about strikethrough text.