Home >CSS >CSS reference – properties, selectors, functions >word-spacing

word-spacing

word-spacing: normal | <length>

Adds or removes space to the gaps between words. It is used rarely – mainly in large headings and tracked text, where the words run together after increasing letter-spacing.

Values

normal – the default: a space by the font.
length – the added width of the space, even negative: 0.2em, 4px.

Initial value: normal. Inherited: yes. Applies to: all elements.

Examples

Tracked text without adjusting the spaces between words and with it:

<p class="tracked">THE WEB CONFERENCE 2026</p>
<p class="tracked words">THE WEB CONFERENCE 2026</p>

.tracked {
  margin: 0 0 6px;
  font: 16px Arial, sans-serif;
  letter-spacing: 0.3em;
}
.words { word-spacing: 0.5em; }

result

THE WEB CONFERENCE 2026

Things to watch out for

It adds space to the spaces in the source text, including non-breaking ones ( ).
With text-align: justify the spaces between words stretch even without word-spacing; the value is added to them.
For accessibility (WCAG) it must be possible to increase the word spacing to 0.16 times the font size without losing content.

Browser support

Baseline – widely available: works in all major browsers and has for a long time (since 2015 at the latest). Since version: Chrome 1, Firefox 1, Safari 1. As of October 2026 (MDN browser-compat-data).