> **Markdown** is a [lightweight markup language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language) with plain text formatting syntax. It is designed so that it can be converted to [HTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML) and many other formats using a tool by the same name.[[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-8)Markdown is often used to format [readme files](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/README), for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create [rich text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formatted_text) using a [plain text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_text) [editor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editor). As the initial description of Markdown contained ambiguities and unanswered questions, many implementations and extensions of Markdown appeared over the years to answer these issues.