[nextos]

=string= leads to the text being transcribed verbatim. A good hint is to recall that the equals sign kinda implies verbatim.

[kevhito]

Ironic then that [0] (the first hit when I search "emacs org mode tutorial") says:

    You can make words *bold*, /italic/, _underlined_, =code= and ~verbatim~, and, if you must, +strike-through+.

[0]: https://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org4beginners.html

[nextos]

That seems to be a very old tutorial. It's indeed confusing that they host that on the official site.

The official manual states equals is used for =verbatim= quotes: https://orgmode.org/manual/Emphasis-and-Monospace.html