Lodash _.deburr() Method

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll remove accents and diacritical marks from strings using Lodash’s _.deburr() for cleaner search and comparison.

What Is _.deburr()?

_.deburr() removes combining diacritical marks from a string, converting accented characters like é into their base Latin forms like e. It is ideal for normalization before search, sort, or equality checks—not for erasing locale-specific spelling that users expect to see on screen.

International apps use deburr on search indexes, slug generation, and fuzzy matching so users are not punished for omitting accents on their keyboard.

📝 Syntax

Pass the string containing accented or decorated characters:

_.deburr(string)

Syntax Rules

• string — the input text with possible diacritics.
• Return value — a new string with combining marks stripped.
• Latin focus — works on common Latin accented characters; not a full transliteration system.
• Non-mutating — the original string is unchanged.
• Composable — chain with _.toLower for case-insensitive search keys.

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";

const accented = "résuḿé";
const plain = deburr(accented);
// -> "resume"

Examples Gallery

Practical _.deburr() patterns with copy-ready code, sample output, and interactive Try It Yourself labs.

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";

const accented = "résuḿé";
const plain = deburr(accented);

console.log(plain);
// -> "resume"

plain: "resume"

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";

const a = "café";
const b = "cafe";

console.log(deburr(a) === deburr(b));
// -> true

equal after deburr: true

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";
import toLower from "lodash/toLower";

const products = ["Café Latte", "Green Tea", "Chai"];
const query = "cafe";

const hits = products.filter((p) =>
  deburr(toLower(p)).includes(deburr(toLower(query)))
);

console.log(hits);
// -> ["Café Latte"]

hits: ["Café Latte"]

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";

const tags = ["naïve", "résumé", "Zürich"];
const normalized = tags.map(deburr);
// -> ["naive", "resume", "Zurich"]

normalized: ["naive", "resume", "Zurich"]

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";
import toLower from "lodash/toLower";

const title = "Café & Crêpes";
const key = toLower(deburr(title)).replace(/\s+/g, "-");
// -> "cafe-&-crepes"  (pair with kebabCase for cleaner slugs)

key: "cafe-&-crepes"

import deburr from "lodash/deburr";

const input = "jalapeño";

// Lodash
console.log(deburr(input)); // -> "jalapeno"

// Native (ES2018+)
const native = input.normalize("NFD").replace(/\p{M}/gu, "");
console.log(native); // -> "jalapeno"

deburr: "jalapeno"
native: "jalapeno"

📝 Notes

• _.deburr() is for matching and indexing, not for replacing proper localized display.
• Pair with _.toLower() for case- and accent-insensitive search.
• It focuses on Latin accented characters; full transliteration needs dedicated libraries.
• The original string is never mutated.
• You can pass _.deburr directly to Array.prototype.map.
• Import lodash/deburr to keep bundles lean.

💡 Best Practices