What an asterisk means in texts and chats
A word that starts with an asterisk, like *their, corrects a typo in the previous message. A word wrapped in asterisks, like *seriously*, adds emphasis, and in many apps it becomes bold or italic. Around a verb, like *waves*, it describes an action.
The correction asterisk
You send "see you their". A second later you send "*there". The asterisk says "I meant this word". It works because the reader already has the first message for context. There's no space after the asterisk, and you only send the word that was wrong.
Emphasis and formatting by app
Many chat apps read asterisks as formatting instructions, so what you type isn't what gets sent:
| App | *text* becomes |
|---|---|
| bold | |
| Slack | bold |
| Discord | italic (use **text** for bold) |
| Reddit (Markdown) | italic (use **text** for bold) |
| Google Docs with Markdown detection on | italic |
To show the asterisks themselves, most of these apps accept a backslash before each one (\*). The Markdown guide covers the exact rules. Or use a lookalike character such as the heavy asterisk ✱, which apps don't treat as formatting.
Actions: *shrugs*
Wrapping a verb in asterisks, like *shrugs*, *hugs* or *slowly backs away*, describes something you're doing rather than saying. The habit comes from early online chat and role-play, where there was no other way to show an action. In apps that format asterisks, the action ends up in bold or italics, which works just as well.
"Real*" with an asterisk
An asterisk at the end of a word, like "it's free*", borrows from advertising: it signals a catch, the way fine print does. It's often used ironically.