word-spacing

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The word-spacing CSS property sets the length of space between words and between tags.

Try it

word-spacing: normal;

word-spacing: 1rem;

word-spacing: 4px;

word-spacing: -0.4ch;

<section id="default-example">
  <p id="example-element">
    As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the
    face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus,
    forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.
  </p>
</section>

@font-face {
  src: url("/shared-assets/fonts/variable-fonts/AmstelvarAlpha-VF.ttf");
  font-family: "Amstelvar";
  font-style: normal;
}

section {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  font-family: "Amstelvar", serif;
}

Syntax

css

/* Keyword value */
word-spacing: normal;

/* <length> values */
word-spacing: 3px;
word-spacing: 0.3em;

/* Global values */
word-spacing: inherit;
word-spacing: initial;
word-spacing: revert;
word-spacing: revert-layer;
word-spacing: unset;

Values

normal: The normal inter-word spacing, as defined by the current font and/or the browser.
<length>: Specifies extra spacing in addition to the intrinsic inter-word spacing defined by the font.

A large positive or negative word-spacing value will make the sentences the styling is applied to unreadable. For text styled with a very large positive value, the words will be so far apart that it will no longer appear to be a sentence. For text styled with a large negative value, the words will overlap each other to the point where the beginning and end of each word is unrecognizable.

Legible word-spacing must be determined on a case-by-case basis, as different font families have different character widths. There is no one value that can ensure all font families automatically maintain their legibility.

Examples

HTML

html

<div id="mozdiv1">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</div>
<div id="mozdiv2">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</div>

CSS

css

#mozdiv1 {
  word-spacing: 15px;
}

#mozdiv2 {
  word-spacing: 5em;
}

Formal definition

Initial value	`normal`
Applies to	all elements. It also applies to `::first-letter` and `::first-line`.
Inherited	yes
Percentages	refer to the width of the affected glyph
Computed value	absolute `<length>`
Animation type	a length

Formal syntax

word-spacing = 
  normal               |
  <length-percentage>  

<length-percentage> = 
  <length>      |
  <percentage>

Specifications

Specification
CSS Text Module Level 3 # word-spacing-property
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 # WordSpacingProperty

Browser compatibility

Help improve MDN

Learn how to contribute

This page was last modified on ⁨Oct 30, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

View this page on GitHub • Report a problem with this content