# Nested footnotes do not render

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/nested-footnotes-do-not-render/391604
**Category:** Bug
**Tags:** footnote
**Created:** [December 17, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/nested-footnotes-do-not-render/391604 "2025-12-17T22:27:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![roke\_julian\_lockhart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/roke_julian_lockhart/32/540179_2.png) [@roke\_julian\_lockhart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/roke_julian_lockhart)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/nested-footnotes-do-not-render/391604/1 "2025-12-17T22:27:54Z")

</div>

When creating [`t/63172/79`](https://meta.discourse.org/t/threaded-discussion-is-ultimately-too-complex-to-survive-on-the-public-internet/63172/79), I noticed that:

```Markdown
[^2]

[^2]: [^4]

    [^4]: placeholder

```

…produces:

 ![#](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/1/3/8/13875e848b6e0a9ecf583fbceced4b862864d7c0.png)

…whereas:

```Markdown
[^2]

[^2]: [^4]

[^4]: placeholder

```

…produces:

 ![#](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/8/e/28ee73c82ad800c11daa1e97c609b1cc8a3a2207.png)

GitHub and GitLab-Flavoured Markdown support this. Being able to nest visible content in side a footnote is important. This solely appears to affect the appear-upon-hover mode.