GC Design System CSS Shortcuts
GC Design System Start to use Page templates overview Basic page Components overview Breadcrumbs Button Card Checkboxes Container Date input Date modified Details Error message Error summary Fieldset File uploader Footer Grid Header Heading Icon Input Language toggle Link Notice Pagination Radios Screenreader-only Search Select Side navigation Signature Stepper Text Textarea Theme and topic menu Top navigation CSS shortcuts overview Reset styles Responsive layout State Box sizing Container sizing Display Overflow Position Visibility Font Font family Font size Font style Font weight Line height Link colour Link size Link text decoration List style Text align Text colour Text overflow Text transform Word break Margin Padding Align content Align items Align self Flex Flex direction Flex grow Flex shrink Flex wrap Gap Grid columns Grid rows Justify content Justify items Justify self Order Place content Place items Place self Background colour Border colour Border radius Border style Border width Icon names Icon size Image Cursor Pointer events Transition Styles overview Design tokens Colour tokens Spacing tokens Typography tokens Contact us Get involved Find a demo

Word break

The word break class sets the word-break property. It controls how words or unbreakable strings break when reaching the end of a line.

Overview

CSS Shortcut class Applied style 
break-normal
 
word-break: normal;
 
break-word
 
word-break: break-word;
 
break-all
 
word-break: break-all;

Examples

Normal
break-normal

These are long words: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Sutton-under‑Whitestonecliffe. This text breaks only at natural breakpoints, like spaces and hyphens. If there are no natural breakpoints, long words may overflow the container.

<p class="break-normal">
  These are long words: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Sutton-under‑Whitestonecliffe. This text breaks only at natural breakpoints, like spaces and hyphens. If there are no natural breakpoints, long words may overflow the container.
</p>

Word
break-word

These are long words: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Sutton-under‑Whitestonecliffe. This text breaks long words when necessary to prevent overflow, by breaking anywhere within the word if no natural breakpoints (spaces and hyphens) exist.

<p class="break-word">
  These are long words: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Sutton-under‑Whitestonecliffe. This text breaks long words when necessary to prevent overflow, by breaking anywhere within the word if no natural breakpoints (spaces and hyphens) exist.
</p>

All
break-all

These are long words: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Sutton-under‑Whitestonecliffe. This text breaks at any point, even in the middle of a word.

<p class="break-all">
  These are long words: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Sutton-under‑Whitestonecliffe. This text breaks at any point, even in the middle of a word.
</p>

Conditional styling Apply this style to specific screen sizes Use a responsive layout prefix to apply this class only to a specified screen size. The available breakpoints are:

  • xs: > 480px
  • sm: > 640px
  • md: > 768px
  • lg: > 1024px
  • xl: > 1280px
  
<div class="xs:break-word ...">
  ...
</div>

Learn more about the responsive layout prefix.

2025-10-01