Final answer:
The backslash '\' is an escape character that allows special characters to be included in text without being interpreted in their usual way, such as allowing an apostrophe to be part of a string.
Step-by-step explanation:
The backslash '\' is used as an escape character in many programming languages and text formats. Its purpose is to indicate that the character that follows should be treated specially or should not be interpreted as it normally would be.
For example, in the sentence 'I lead a muggle's life,' the backslash is used before the apostrophe to indicate that the apostrophe should not end the string literal, thereby allowing the string to include an apostrophe as part of the text itself.
A character that suggests that the character after it has a deeper meaning rather than being taken is known as an escape character. Characters that are difficult or impossible to represent directly are represented by it in a variety of computer languages and other situations. The backslash () is a frequent escape character in various computer languages.