that
the same character must be used to open and close an emphasis span.</p>

<p>Emphasis can be used in the middle of a word:</p>

<pre><code>un*fucking*believable
</code></pre>

<p>But if you surround an <code>*</code> or <code>_</code> with spaces, it&apos;ll be treated as a
literal asterisk or underscore.</p>

<p>To produce a literal asterisk or underscore at a position where it
would otherwise be used as an emphasis delimiter, you can backslash
escape it:</p>

<pre><code>\*this text is surrounded by li