diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/hunspell/wrapper.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/hunspell/wrapper.nix
index 4ae177232751..d67fe2301039 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/hunspell/wrapper.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/hunspell/wrapper.nix
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = (appendToName "with-dicts" hunspell).name;
   nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper ];
   buildCommand = ''
-    makeWrapper ${hunspell.bin}/bin/hunspell $out/bin/hunspell --prefix DICPATH : ${searchPath}
+    makeWrapper ${hunspell.bin}/bin/hunspell $out/bin/hunspell --prefix DICPATH : ${lib.escapeShellArg searchPath}
   '';
   meta = removeAttrs hunspell.meta ["outputsToInstall"];
 }