Tailwind Word Break

The word-break utility class in Tailwind CSS allows you to control the breaking behavior of long words and strings within elements. With Tailwind's word-break class, you can easily modify how words and strings wrap and break to fit within their containing elements.

How to apply Tailwind Word Break

To apply a specific word breaking behavior to an element, you can use the break-{value} utility class, where {value} represents the desired word break behavior. Here are some common values you can use:

• break-normal: Allows normal word breaking behavior, where long words and strings can break between any two characters.
• break-words: Breaks long words and strings at arbitrary points to prevent overflow within the container.
• break-all: Breaks long words and strings at any character, regardless of whether it's a space or not.

<p class="break-normal">
	This is a long word: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
</p>

Preview

Responsive Word Break

Tailwind CSS allows you to apply word break classes responsively at different breakpoints. To use responsive word break classes, you can append the breakpoint prefix to the utility class. For example, md:break-all sets the word breaking behavior to break long words at any character starting from the medium breakpoint and above.

<p class="break-normal md:break-all">
	This is a normal word break by default, but starting from the medium
	breakpoint and above, it will break long words at any character.
</p>

Preview

In the above example, the word breaking behavior of the <p> element is set to normal by default (break-normal), but starting from the medium breakpoint and above, it changes to break long words at any character (md:break-all).

Interaction State Use (hover/focus)

You can change word-break behavior on hover or focus, though it's rarely needed in practice.

<p class="hover:break-all transition-all border">
	Hover to break more aggressively. is there a necessary way for this to work
	out for anyone
	coocolcocooooolcocoolcooolcooolccolcolcoolcoolcoolcooolcooolcoolcoolcoolcool
</p>

Preview

Could be useful in chat apps or admin panels for inspecting full strings without breaking layout initially.

Arbitrary Value Usage

Want something specific like word-break: keep-all;? Use arbitrary values:

<p class="[word-break:keep-all] w-40 bg-white border border-gray-500 p-4">
	여기 쓰여진 단어들을 깨지 않으려고 노력하고 있어요.
</p>

Preview

Use this only if you know what it’s doing — it avoids breaking between characters in languages like Japanese or Korean.

Customization in tailwind.config.js

Tailwind doesn’t expose wordBreak as a theme section by default because it's based on class names only. But if needed, you can extend variants:

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
	extend: {},
	variants: {
		extend: {
			wordBreak: ["hover", "focus", "responsive"],
		},
	},
};

And you can define new utilities in plugins if you need extra fine control, e.g. keep-all.

Real UI Component Examples

🧾 Copy/Paste Textarea (e.g., License Keys)

<textarea class="w-full p-2 border rounded break-all text-sm resize-none h-20">
  ACTIVATE-KEY-2025-THISSTRINGSHOULDN'TOVERFLOW-EVER
</textarea>

Preview

🧵Chat Bubble (with uncontrolled user input)

<div class="max-w-xs bg-gray-100 p-3 rounded-xl break-words text-sm">
	okcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool
</div>

Preview

🧾 Auto-generated Slug Preview

Users might generate slugs or filenames that get long. You don’t want it to overflow.

<p class="text-gray-700 text-sm break-words w-64">
	/blog/posts/how-to-deal-with-super-long-unbreakableslugsfromtitles
</p>

Preview

✅ Keeps the layout responsive without hard clipping.

Best Practices for Devs/Designers

• Use break-words for user input, especially in cards, chat, or modals.

• Use break-all only when layout preservation matters more than word readability.

• Avoid break-all for body copy or paragraphs — it’s hard to read.

• Test on real data. UI looks clean in mockups until you dump someone’s 200-character username into it.

Accessibility Notes

• word-break has no direct impact on screen readers.

• However, extreme line breaks can make visual scanning harder for users with dyslexia or cognitive challenges.

• Prioritize legibility over cramming text into containers.

• If a string is truncated, consider showing full content on hover or in a tooltip/modal for clarity.

Tailwind CSS Word Break

✨ What's Next?

Now that you’ve mastered Tailwind Word Break, try experimenting with:

• Tailwind Z-index

• Tailwind Skew

Windframe Tailwind blocks

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