Skip to main
Video
CSS code snippet with overflow wrap options

How do you wrap long words in CSS?

None of the solutions are perfect, but we have some options

Horizontal text overflow has always been difficult to manage on the web. The default visible overflow is designed to make sure content remains accessible no matter the size of a containing box, but it’s not our only option.

We can now use overflow-wrap to control how words break – and combine that with hyphens to make wrapped text more readable. The solutions aren’t perfect yet, but I’ll walk you through the options we have, and how to use them.

Overflow-Wrap is the proper way to break words in CSS

Upcoming Workshop

Mia from behind,
standing at a laptop -
speaking to a conference audience
and gesturing to one side

Cascading Style Systems

A workshop on resilient & maintainable CSS

New CSS features are shipping at an unprecedented rate – cascade layers, container queries, the :has() selector, subgrid, nesting, and so much more. It’s a good time to step back and understand how these tools fit together in a declarative system – a resilient cascade of styles.

Register for the October workshop »

Recent Videos

  1. Video post type

    Smashing Hour with Miriam Suzanne

    I joined Geoff Graham for a Smashing live stream to talk about CSS, web standards, music, and more!

    see all Video posts
  2. Video post type

    Web Development Is Theater

    I joined Den Delimarsky on the Work Item podcast to talk about my path as a developer – from building a website for my theater company, to building a career and a company around it. In this show, we talk about the power of the web, and how CSS is…

    see all Video posts
  3. Video post type

    Demystifying CSS Container Queries

    CSS Container Queries promise even more powerful styling approaches, but… what the heck are they? How do they actually work? Miriam joined Jason to teach and explore Container Queries in live code.

    see all Video posts