Basic syntax
The core CommonMark elements every Markdown parser supports.
| Element | Markdown | Result |
|---|
| Heading | # Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3 | Heading 1 |
| Bold | **bold text** | bold text |
| Italic | *italic text* | italic text |
| Bold and italic | ***bold and italic*** | bold and italic |
| Blockquote | > Quoted text | Quoted text |
| Ordered list | 1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item | - First item
- Second item
|
| Unordered list | - First item
- Second item | |
| Inline code | `code` | code |
| Horizontal rule | --- |
|
| Link | [title](https://example.com) | title |
| Image |  | alt text (renders the image) |
Extended syntax (GitHub Flavored Markdown)
These extensions are not part of core CommonMark, but are supported by GitHub, most chat apps, and every tool on this site.
Tables
Pipes separate columns; the second row's colons set column alignment.
| Left | Center | Right |
| :--- | :---: | ---: |
| a | b | c |
Task lists
A dash, a checkbox, and a space — checked items use an x.
- [x] Completed task
- [ ] Open task
Strikethrough
Double tildes cross out text.
strikethrough text
Fenced code blocks with a language
Three backticks, an optional language tag (used for syntax highlighting in most renderers), then the code.
```js
function greet(name) {
return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}
```
function greet(name) {
return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}
Autolinks
A bare URL becomes a clickable link automatically — no brackets or parentheses needed.
Footnotes (support varies)
Footnotes use a caret and a bracketed label, defined later in the document:
Here's a claim.[^1]
[^1]: This is the footnote.
Footnotes render on GitHub, but they are not part of core CommonMark or the table/task-list extensions most other parsers implement — including this site's own converters. Test footnote syntax in your actual target renderer before relying on it.