What does italicizing text mean?

Italics have several uses. Most commonly, italics are used for emphasis or contrast — that is, to draw attention to some particular part of a text. ... This is the standard way of representing emphasis or contrast; you should not try to use quotation marks or other punctuation marks for this purpose.

What does Italicizing a word do?

When you italicize your writing, you print or type in the slanted letters called "italics." You can italicize a word in a sentence when you want to emphasize it. ... Print that you italicize usually slopes from left to right, and it resembles script or cursive writing.