Generate Zalgo / glitch / cursed text — h̛͝e̢͠l̕l̛͠o̕ — by stacking Unicode combining characters. The classic creepy, broken-looking internet aesthetic. Pastes into Discord, X/Twitter, Reddit, anywhere plain text works.
Hello → H̸̢͝e̛͠͝l̛͞l̛͠o̢͠
Zalgo text — also called glitch text, cursed text, or corrupted text — stacks Unicode combining diacritics above and below each character, creating a fractured, otherworldly visual effect that signals horror, chaos, or comic dread. The name comes from a 2004 webcomic that used the effect to depict a malevolent entity.
Because Zalgo is just regular text plus combining marks (no special font required), it pastes anywhere a plain-text field accepts characters. Most commonly seen in Discord (creepypasta channels, horror RP), Reddit (r/glitchart, r/HorrorStories), Twitter/X horror accounts, and meme posts.
Roleplay servers and creepypasta-themed Discord channels use Zalgo for in-character dialog from supernatural entities. Light intensity for atmosphere; heavy for full corruption.
Halloween posts, horror author Twitter accounts, indie horror game promotions — Zalgo as an atmospheric visual flourish on a single phrase.
The internet's standard way of conveying "this is haunted" is to Zalgo a single word in an otherwise-normal sentence. "My phone is fine" becomes "My phone is f̸͠ı̛͝n̢͠e̛͞."
Pair with broken HTML, dead pixels, and corrupted JPEGs in glitch-art compositions. Zalgo text is the typographic equivalent of digital corruption.
Twitch streamers occasionally use Zalgo for stream alerts ("D̛͠O̧ ̛N̛͝O̧T̛͝ ̢͠B̛̕Ĺ̛͠Į̛N̢K̛̕") — equal parts unsettling and funny.
Naïve text-rendering systems can't handle dozens of stacked combining diacritics — they may freeze, slow down, or even crash. Modern apps (anything from the last decade) handle it fine. Don't paste extreme Zalgo into legacy systems.
Not really — screen readers will read each combining character individually, producing nonsense. Use Zalgo only for content where decoration matters more than accessibility.
Our default produces moderate corruption (2–4 marks above, 1–2 below). For more or less, run the output through the tool again to stack more, or strip combining characters with a regex.
Combining marks are picked randomly from a pool. Run the tool twice on the same text and you'll get two different but similarly-corrupted versions.