# Italic
To italicize text, add one asterisk or underscore before and after a word or phrase. To italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add one asterisk without spaces around the letters.
| Markdown | HTML | Output |
|-----------|------|--------|
|`Italicized text is the *cat's meow*.`|`Italicized text is the cat's meow.`|Italicized text is the *cat's meow*.|
|`Italicized text is the _cat's meow_.`|`Italicized text is the cat's meow.`|Italicized text is the _cat's meow_.|
|`A*cat*meow`|`Acatmeow`|A*cat*meow|
## Italic Best Practices
Markdown applications don't agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.
| ✅ Do this | ❌ Don't do this |
|------------------|------------------------|
| `A*cat*meow` | `A_cat_meow` |