# Escaping Characters
To display a literal character that would otherwise be used to format text in a Markdown document, add a backslash (`\ `) in front of the character.
`\* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.`
The rendered output looks like this:
\* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.
## Characters You Can Escape
You can use a backslash to escape the following characters.
| Character | Name |
|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `\ ` | backslash |
| `` ` `` | backtick (see also [escaping backticks in code](code.md#escaping-backticks)) |
| `*` | asterisk |
| `_` | underscore |
| `{}` | curly braces |
| `[]` | brackets |
| `<>` | angle brackets |
| `()` | parentheses |
| `#` | pound sign |
| `+` | plus sign |
| `-` | minus sign (hyphen) |
| `.` | dot |
| `!` | exclamation mark |
| `\|` | pipe (see also [escaping pipe in tables](../extended-syntax/tables#escaping-pipe-characters-in-tables)) |