How combining characters work
Unicode’s Combining Diacritical Marks block contains characters that don’t stand alone — each one attaches to the character before it. Accents work this way (e = e + U+0301 → é), and so do overlay strokes: U+0336 is combining long stroke overlay, a horizontal line drawn across the preceding character. This generator inserts one after every character you type. That mechanism is the key difference from Unicode bold and italic, which substitute entirely different characters and therefore only cover what the math block encodes (Latin + some Greek). An overlay doesn’t care what it’s stacked on — з̶а̶ч̶ё̶р̶к̶н̶у̶т̶ы̶й̶ works, δ̶ι̶α̶γ̶ρ̶α̶μ̶μ̶έ̶ν̶ο̶ works, é̶t̶é̶ works. If you need to cross out non-Latin text, this is the only Unicode trick that can.
The styles
Single strike (U+0336) is the standard crossed-out look and the most widely supported. Short strike (U+0335) draws a shorter stroke that doesn’t always connect between letters — some prefer the broken look. Double strike stacks two long-stroke overlays per character; honest caveat: many fonts draw both strokes at the same position, so it renders identically to single strike on some devices — there is no dedicated “combining double overlay” in Unicode, and any site claiming otherwise is doing exactly this. Slash (U+0338) crosses each letter diagonally, the “not equal” style. Tilde overlay (U+0334) waves through the text. Underline (U+0332) is the same trick pointed down — included because if you’re here, you’ll want it eventually.
Crossing out text: where people actually use it
The joke-correction (“my ex̶ friend”), showing an old price next to a new one, marking done items in a plain-text list, sarcastic self-editing in a post or bio, and indicating a retracted statement in a comment thread. In editors that support real strikethrough — many chat apps render ~~text~~, and documents have a strikethrough button — prefer the real thing: it’s accessible and searchable. Combining-character strikethrough is for everywhere else: bios, titles, usernames’ display fields, single-line inputs, and platforms with no formatting.
Platform rendering support
Rendering depends on the font, not the platform’s goodwill — but in practice current systems handle overlays well. What follows is behavior observed on current app versions; generic and subject to change.
| Context | Single strike | Slash | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern browsers (all major) | Renders | Renders | Consistent since system fonts gained combining-mark support |
| Mobile OS system fonts | Renders | Renders | Stroke position varies slightly by typeface |
| Social bios & posts | Renders | Renders | Some platforms strip combining marks from unique @handles |
| Chat apps | Renders | Renders | Where ~~text~~ exists, prefer it — accessible & searchable |
| Older desktop systems | Varies | Varies | Strokes may sit beside letters instead of through them |
| Terminals / code editors | Varies | Varies | Monospace fonts often misalign overlays |
Frequently asked questions
Why does double strikethrough look the same as single on my phone?
Because Unicode has no dedicated double-overlay character — “double” is two single overlays stacked, and many fonts draw both at the same vertical position. Where the font offsets them, you get two visible lines; where it doesn’t, they coincide. That’s a font decision this (or any) generator can’t override.
Does it really work on any language?
Any script whose font supports combining marks — which is nearly everything current. The overlay attaches to whatever character precedes it, so Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, accented Latin, and CJK all take the stroke. Complex-shaping scripts (Arabic joining forms, Indic conjuncts) render the stroke but sometimes at inconsistent heights within a word.
Why does deleting one “letter” take two backspaces?
Each visible struck character is genuinely two characters — the letter plus its overlay. Some editors delete them as a pair; others expose the seam and need two keystrokes. Same reason struck text is longer in character counts: a 10-letter word costs 20 characters against a platform limit.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No — the overlay insertion runs in your browser tab with no server or network request, and the page works offline once loaded.