To display special characters in Markdown, use a backslash (\) before the character. This technique helps you show symbols that might otherwise be interpreted as formatting commands, such as asterisks or brackets.
To display a literal character that would otherwise be used to format text in a Markdown document, add a backslash (\
) in front of the character.
\* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.
The rendered output looks like this:
* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.
You can use a backslash to escape the following characters.
Character |
Name |
---|---|
backslash | |
` |
backtick (see also escaping backticks in code) |
* |
asterisk |
_ |
underscore |
{ } |
curly braces |
[ ] |
brackets |
< > |
angle brackets |
( ) |
parentheses |
# |
pound sign |
+ |
plus sign |
- |
minus sign (hyphen) |
. |
dot |
! |
exclamation mark |
| |
pipe (see also escaping pipe in tables) |
This guide is a Matt Cone project available on Markdown Guide under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.