Discord Text Formatting: A Complete 2025 Guide

If your messages look like plain walls of text, readers will scroll past. Discord supports lightweight Markdown that helps your content stand out without being noisy. This guide shows every style you can use, when to use it, and concise examples you can paste directly.

Basic emphasis

• Bold: **bold** → bold

• Italic: *italic* → italic

• Underline: __underline__ → underline

• Strikethrough: ~~strike~~ → strike

Use sparingly. If everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized.

Inline code and code blocks

• Inline code:

• Multiline code: wrap text with triple backticks

Tip: Inline/code blocks neutralize other formatting (no bold/italic inside).

Blockquotes

• Single line: > quoted line
• Multi-line: start each line with >

Great for replies, summaries, or calling out context.

Lists

• Bulleted: start lines with -, *, or +
• Numbered: start lines with 1. — Discord auto-increments

Example:

Headers

Use #, ##, or ### at the start of a line:

Keep headers short. They help skimming.

Hyperlinks

• Format: [Link text](https://example.com)
• Example: [Discord](https://discord.com)

Use descriptive link text so readers know where they’re going.

Mentions

• Users: @username or <@UserID>
• Roles: @Role or <@&RoleID>
• Channels: #channel or <#ChannelID>

Mentions notify people. Use thoughtfully.

Spoilers

Hide content behind a tap/click to reveal:

• Inline: ||spoiler||
• Blocks: wrap multiple words or lines with || ... ||

Great for plot details, answers, or sensitive info.

Subtext (small, muted)

Start a new line with -# to render subtle, secondary notes.

Use for footnotes or optional info.

Emojis and formatting

Emojis work with all styles:

• **🎉 Launch day! 🎊** → 🎉 Launch day! 🎊
• *🤔 Thinking…* → 🤔 Thinking…
• __🏆 Winner 🥇__ → 🏆 Winner 🥇

They add tone and rhythm—don’t overdo it.

Combine styles

Nest markers carefully (open outermost first, close last):

• Bold + italic: ***text*** → text
• Underline + bold: __**text**__ → text
• Strike + italic: ~~*text*~~ → text
• All three: __***wow***__ → __wow __

If something looks off, check your opening/closing order.

Best practices

• Keep messages scannable: headers, bullets, short paragraphs
• Use emphasis to guide attention, not to decorate
• Prefer inline code for commands; blocks for logs/snippets
• Quote only what’s relevant to maintain context
• Link with meaningful anchor text

Quick reference

• Bold: **text**
• Italic: *text*
• Underline: __text__
• Strikethrough: ~~text~~
• Inline code: `code`
• Code block: triple backticks, optional language
• Quote: >
• Bullet: - or *
• Numbered: 1.
• Headers: #, ##, ###
• Link: [text](url)
• Mention IDs: <@id>, <@&id>, <#id>
• Spoiler: ||text||
• Subtext: -# note
• Subtext: -# note

References

• Discord Support — Markdown Text 101: Chat Formatting (Bold, Italic, Underline): support.discord.com
• Matthew Zring — Markdown Text 101 (Gist): gist.github.com/matthewzring