diff --git a/system/Helpers/text_helper.php b/system/Helpers/text_helper.php
index cf9459100dfb..09d14abbe2ee 100644
--- a/system/Helpers/text_helper.php
+++ b/system/Helpers/text_helper.php
@@ -383,7 +383,9 @@ function word_wrap(string $str, int $charlim = 76): string
 
             $temp = '';
 
-            while (mb_strlen($line) > $charlim) {
+            // A limit of 1 can't be used to split a word (each piece needs room for
+            // the continuation), so the word is kept whole, like a long URL.
+            while ($charlim > 1 && mb_strlen($line) > $charlim) {
                 // If the over-length word is a URL we won't wrap it
                 if (preg_match('!\[url.+\]|://|www\.!', $line)) {
                     break;
diff --git a/tests/system/Helpers/TextHelperTest.php b/tests/system/Helpers/TextHelperTest.php
index a4702db4b604..88878bcf8294 100644
--- a/tests/system/Helpers/TextHelperTest.php
+++ b/tests/system/Helpers/TextHelperTest.php
@@ -358,6 +358,27 @@ public function testEllipsize(): void
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * A character limit below 2 used to make word_wrap() loop forever.
+     */
+    #[DataProvider('provideWordWrapSmallCharLimit')]
+    public function testWordWrapSmallCharLimit(int $charlim): void
+    {
+        $this->assertSame("aaaa\nbbbb", word_wrap('aaaa bbbb', $charlim));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @return iterable<string, array{int}>
+     */
+    public static function provideWordWrapSmallCharLimit(): iterable
+    {
+        yield 'one' => [1];
+
+        yield 'zero' => [0];
+
+        yield 'negative' => [-5];
+    }
+
     public function testWordWrap(): void
     {
         $string   = 'Here is a simple string of text that will help us demonstrate this function.';
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.7.5.rst b/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.7.5.rst
index deabaf4b7ab4..492db76c20c7 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.7.5.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/changelogs/v4.7.5.rst
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ Bugs Fixed
 - **Debug:** Fixed a bug where ``Timer::start()`` treated ``0.0`` as an empty value and substituted the current time.
 - **Files:** Fixed a bug where ``File::move()`` and ``UploadedFile::move()`` set executable and overly permissive file permissions (``0777 & ~umask()`` instead of ``0666 & ~umask()``), and ``UploadedFile::move()`` targeted the parent directory instead of the destination file for ``chmod()``.
 - **Helpers:** Fixed a bug where ``get_dir_file_info()`` returned incomplete entries for subdirectories and missing files instead of omitting them.
+- **Helpers:** Fixed a bug where ``word_wrap()`` entered an infinite loop when the character limit was below 2. Over-length words are now kept whole in that case.
 - **Honeypot:** Fixed a bug where bot detection returned an HTTP 500 response instead of 403 (Forbidden).
 - **I18n:** Fixed a bug where ``Time::today()``, ``Time::yesterday()``, and ``Time::tomorrow()`` ignored the specified ``$timezone`` and ``setTestNow()`` when calculating the day.
 - **Logger:** Fixed a bug where interpolating a log message with array or non-stringable context values could raise PHP warnings or errors.