Markdown

9 synonyms and 2 antonyms for Markdown, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — A lightweight way of formatting plain text using ordinary keyboard characters, so that asterisks around a word make it bold, a hash at the start of a line makes it a heading, and so on. The file stays readable as it is, and software can turn it into formatted output such as a web page.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

reduction discount

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

lightweight markup language plain-text formatting syntax markup syntax markdown file MD file price cut price reduction

Synonyms by Meaning

1. noun technical, computing

A lightweight way of formatting plain text using ordinary keyboard characters, so that asterisks around a word make it bold, a hash at the start of a line makes it a heading, and so on. The file stays readable as it is, and software can turn it into formatted output such as a web page.

“The README is written in Markdown.”

lightweight markup language plain-text formatting syntax markup syntax

2. noun technical, computing

A file written in that syntax, normally ending in .md.

“She keeps all her notes as Markdown files in one folder.”

markdown file MD file

3. noun retail, business

A reduction in the selling price of goods, or the amount by which a price is reduced.

“The winter coats went through a second markdown in January.”

price cut reduction discount price reduction

Opposites

markup price rise

How to use Markdown

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

written in Markdown Markdown file Markdown syntax render Markdown convert Markdown to HTML

Capitalised as Markdown when naming the format. The retail sense is an ordinary lower-case noun and unrelated in meaning.

Etymology

Named by John Gruber in 2004 as a play on markup, the general term for adding formatting instructions to plain text.

Full origin of Markdown →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Markdown and HTML?

Both describe how text should be formatted, but HTML uses explicit tags and can express almost any layout, while Markdown offers a small set of shorthand characters covering the common cases: headings, bold, italics, lists, links and code. Markdown is normally converted into HTML behind the scenes, and most versions let you drop raw HTML in when you need something Markdown cannot express.

Is Markdown a programming language?

No. It gives no instructions and performs no calculations. It is a markup syntax: a way of annotating plain text to say which parts are headings, emphasis, lists or links.

Why are there so many versions of Markdown?

The original 2004 description left a number of cases ambiguous, so different projects filled the gaps in different ways and added their own extras, such as tables and task lists. CommonMark is a later effort to pin the core rules down precisely, and GitHub Flavored Markdown is a widely used extension of it.

People also searched

reduction discount markup

Nearby words

← Back to the full definition of Markdown