How to Insert a Line Through a Word in Excel

To put a line through just one word in an Excel cell, edit the cell, select the word’s characters, open Format Cells with Ctrl+1, and turn on Strikethrough on the Font tab. Excel calls this formatting strikethrough; it does not insert a separate line object. If you want to strike through the entire cell instead, select the cell and press Ctrl+5.

The steps below are for Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows. They are useful for marking a word as removed, showing an edit, or indicating a completed item while keeping the original text visible. Save the workbook first if the text is important, especially before making a lot of manual formatting changes.

What You’ll Need

A workbook open in the Excel desktop app. The steps for selecting part of a cell’s text rely on desktop Excel’s character-formatting controls.
A cell containing editable text. You can format one word within a text value, but a formula-generated result cannot normally be given character-by-character formatting in the same way.
A keyboard or mouse to enter cell-editing mode and select the exact characters you want to format.

Step-by-Step

Find the cell and check its contents. Click the cell that contains the word. Read the full text in the cell or formula bar so you know exactly which occurrence to change. If the same word appears more than once, note which occurrence should have the line through it. Strikethrough is a visual change only: it does not delete the word, alter a value, or change how a formula calculates.
Enter edit mode for the cell. Double-click inside the cell, or select it and press F2. You should see a text cursor inside the cell’s contents rather than just a border around the cell. If the cell is too narrow to work in, you can still edit it with F2; the text may appear more clearly in the formula bar. Avoid pressing Enter at this point, because that confirms the edit and exits editing mode.
Select only the word’s characters. Use the mouse to drag across the word, or use the arrow keys while holding Shift to extend a character selection. Check that the highlight covers the intended word and not a space, comma, or neighboring word. For a phrase, select the whole phrase. You can also select just part of a word if that is what you need. The key is to have text highlighted within the cell, not merely to have the whole cell selected.
Open the character-formatting options. With the text still selected, press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog. If you prefer the ribbon, use Home and open the Font dialog box launcher, the small arrow at the lower-right of the Font group. Keep the text selection in place while opening the dialog; if you click elsewhere and lose it, close the dialog and select the word again.
Turn on Strikethrough. In the dialog, choose the Font tab. Under the effects options, check Strikethrough. Do not confuse it with Superscript, Subscript, or an underline option; those create different effects. Click OK to apply the formatting to the selected characters.
Confirm the cell edit. Press Enter or click another cell to finish editing. The line should run through the selected word while the rest of the cell’s text remains unchanged. If you do not see it immediately, widen the column or zoom in briefly to inspect the result; thin lines can be hard to see at small sizes.
Check that you formatted text, not the whole cell. Click the cell once. If every character is crossed out, you likely applied strikethrough to the cell as a whole rather than to an in-cell text selection. Use Undo immediately if appropriate, then repeat the process and make sure the word itself is highlighted before opening Format Cells.

To strike through an entire cell instead: select the cell or cells and press Ctrl+5. You can also use Home > Font and select the Strikethrough control if it is shown on your ribbon. This whole-cell shortcut is faster, but it is not the method for formatting a single word inside a longer cell entry.

On Mac: the basic method is the same: edit the cell, select the characters, open the cell-formatting dialog, and enable Strikethrough on its Font tab. Use Command+1 to open the formatting dialog in Excel for Mac; the exact dialog layout can vary slightly by release. For strikethrough on a selected cell, the Mac shortcut is generally Command+Shift+X. On Excel for the web, whole-cell strikethrough is available from the Home formatting controls, but character-level formatting options can be more limited. If you cannot select and format only part of the text in your browser, choose Open in Desktop App and use the desktop steps.

Common Mistakes

Selecting the cell instead of the word. A single click highlights the cell as an object; it does not select the characters inside it. Enter editing mode first, then highlight the specific text. This is the most common reason that the whole cell gets a line through it.
Using Ctrl+5 for a partial word. Ctrl+5 is a handy whole-cell strikethrough shortcut on Windows. It is not the careful character-selection route described above. Use Format Cells after selecting the word when you want only part of an entry marked.
Leaving edit mode before applying the effect. Pressing Enter or clicking a different cell confirms the edit and can remove the text selection. If that happens, go back into the cell with F2 or a double-click and select the word again.
Choosing the wrong font effect. Underline places a line beneath text, while strikethrough crosses through it. Check the label in the Font tab rather than relying on a small icon that may be difficult to distinguish.
Expecting the formatting to change the data. Strikethrough does not remove a word, mark a row as completed for Excel’s logic, or affect sorting and calculations. It is visual formatting only. If your workflow needs a status value, add a separate status column rather than treating the line as data.
Trying to format a formula result as if it were typed text. A cell that displays text returned by a formula is controlled by that formula. Excel does not generally let you apply a stable strikethrough to just one character of the changing result. Consider displaying the wording in a separate manually formatted cell, or use a separate status or notes column.

Tips

Make the selection precise. When you drag across a word, start and finish carefully. For a long entry, press F2 and use the arrow keys with Shift to adjust the highlighted range one character at a time. This is especially helpful when the cell contains punctuation or several similar words.
Use the formula bar if the cell is cramped. After entering edit mode, the formula bar can give you more room to inspect a long entry. Depending on the Excel build and the way you enter editing mode, selection behavior may differ. If you cannot retain a character selection there, edit directly inside the cell instead.
Keep the text readable. A line can look cluttered when applied to several adjacent words, particularly in a narrow column or small font. Widen the column, wrap the text, or use a clearer status label if readers need to understand the message quickly.
Use Undo for an immediate correction. If the wrong text or the whole cell was crossed out, press Ctrl+Z on Windows or Command+Z on Mac right away. Then reselect the intended characters. Undo is most reliable immediately after the formatting action; after many other changes, it may undo more than you intend.
Consider accessibility and printing. Do not communicate a critical status only through a line across text. Add a word such as Removed or Complete, or use a separate status column, so the meaning is clear to readers who may not notice the formatting. Check Print Preview if the line needs to be visible on paper.
Apply the same treatment to another word deliberately. Excel’s format painter and copy/paste can copy formatting, but they may also copy other cell formatting or content. For a small number of edits, selecting each word and using the Font tab avoids unintentionally changing a cell’s fill, borders, or number format.

Troubleshooting

The whole cell is crossed out. Undo once, click the cell, enter edit mode, and make sure the word itself is highlighted. Then reopen Format Cells and check Strikethrough. If you used the ribbon or shortcut while the cell alone was selected, Excel applied the effect to the cell rather than to a character range.

Nothing appears to happen. Make sure the selection still exists when you open the Font tab, and verify that you clicked OK. A very small font, low zoom level, or thin character strokes can make the line difficult to see. Increase the zoom or temporarily enlarge the font to confirm whether the effect applied. Also confirm you are editing the intended cell and not a neighboring cell.

The text selection disappears when you open the dialog. Close the dialog without making a change. Re-enter the cell with F2, select the characters, and open Format Cells with Ctrl+1 without clicking elsewhere. If a ribbon interaction is disrupting the selection, use the keyboard shortcut to open the dialog instead.

You cannot edit the cell. The sheet may be protected, the cell may be locked, or the displayed content may come from a formula or external connection. Check Review > Unprotect Sheet if you have permission and the worksheet is protected. If protection is intentional, ask the workbook owner to allow formatting. For formula-generated text, use a separate editable display cell or a status column rather than trying to format one returned character.

The formatting looks different in a browser or on another device. Open the workbook in Excel desktop to set character-level formatting. Confirm the workbook has saved and synced, then reopen it in the other app. If the word is still hard to distinguish, use a wider column or add a plain-text status cue; different zoom settings and fonts can affect how visible a thin strike line appears.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the keyboard shortcut to put a line through text in Excel?
On Windows, Ctrl+5 toggles strikethrough for selected cells. To cross out only one word within a cell, select the word while editing and use Ctrl+1, then choose Font > Strikethrough. On Mac, the whole-cell shortcut is generally Command+Shift+X.

Can I cross out just one word in a cell?
Yes. Enter edit mode, select just that word’s characters, and apply Strikethrough in the Font tab of Format Cells. The unselected text in the same cell should keep its existing appearance.

Does strikethrough delete or hide the word?
No. It leaves the characters in the cell and draws a line through them. Excel can still use the underlying text in formulas, searches, and other operations as it normally would.

Can I strikethrough text returned by a formula?
Not reliably one character at a time as a formatting effect on the formula’s changing result. Use an editable text cell for the formatted wording, or keep the formula result and show status separately.

Can I remove strikethrough later?
Yes. Select the affected word in edit mode, reopen Format Cells > Font, clear Strikethrough, and click OK. For a whole cell, select it and toggle the strikethrough shortcut or control again.

Why does the line look like an underline?
Check that you selected Strikethrough, not Underline. Strikethrough passes through the letters; underline sits below them. Zooming in can help you distinguish the two effects.

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Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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