Italic
Text is often italicized in order to stress a word or phrase, quote a speaker, or introduce a term. Italic type slants slightly to the right, and depending on the font, may have cursive swashes and flourishes.
Italic syntax
You can emphasize (aka italicize) a word or phrase by enclosing it in a single pair of underscores (e.g., _word_) (constrained).
You can emphasize bounded characters (i.e., characters within a word) by enclosing them in a pair of double underscores (e.g., char__act__ers) (unconstrained).
An italic _word_, and an italic _phrase of text_.
Italic c__hara__cter__s__ within a word.You don’t need to use double underscores when an entire word or phrase marked as italic is directly followed by a common punctuation mark, such as ;, ", and !.
The result of Example 1 is rendered below.
An italic word, and an italic phrase of text.
Italic characters within a word.
Mixing italic with other formatting
You can add multiple emphasis styles to italic text as long as the syntax is placed in the correct order.
`*_monospace bold italic phrase_*` & ``**__char__**``acter``**__s__**``Monospace syntax (`) must be the outermost formatting pair.
Bold syntax (*) must be outside the italics formatting pair.
Italic syntax is always the innermost formatting pair.
The result of Example 2 is rendered below.
monospace bold italic phrase & characters