diff --git a/spec/atom/line-wrapper-spec.coffee b/spec/atom/line-wrapper-spec.coffee
index b59ef3e7b..9c978c68e 100644
--- a/spec/atom/line-wrapper-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/atom/line-wrapper-spec.coffee
@@ -148,7 +148,20 @@ describe "LineWrapper", ->
             expect(screenLines[1]).toEqual [{value: 'abcde'}]
 
         describe "when token has leading whitespace", ->
-        describe "when the exceeding token is whitespace", ->
+          it "splits the token in half and places the non-whitespace portion on the next line", ->
+            screenLines = wrapper.splitTokens([{value: '12345'}, {value: '12345'}, {value: '   abcde', type: 'foo'}, {value: 'ghi'}])
+            expect(screenLines.length).toBe 2
+            expect(screenLines[0]).toEqual [{value: '12345'}, {value: '12345'}, {value: '   ', type: 'foo'}]
+            expect(screenLines[1]).toEqual [{value: 'abcde', type: 'foo'}, {value: 'ghi'}]
+
+        describe "when the exceeding token is only whitespace", ->
+          it "keeps the token on the first line and places the following token on the next line", ->
+            screenLines = wrapper.splitTokens([{value: '12345'}, {value: '12345'}, {value: '   '}, {value: 'ghi'}])
+            expect(screenLines.length).toBe 2
+            expect(screenLines[0]).toEqual [{value: '12345'}, {value: '12345'}, {value: '   '}]
+            expect(screenLines[1]).toEqual [{value: 'ghi'}]
+
+
       describe "when the exceeding token straddles the max line length", ->
         describe "when token contains no whitespace", ->
         describe "when token contains whitespace", ->
diff --git a/src/atom/line-wrapper.coffee b/src/atom/line-wrapper.coffee
index 3062df5a7..d7dc55585 100644
--- a/src/atom/line-wrapper.coffee
+++ b/src/atom/line-wrapper.coffee
@@ -40,13 +40,26 @@ class LineWrapper
     length = 0
     screenLine = []
     while tokens.length
-      break if length + tokens[0].value.length > @maxLength
-      token = tokens.shift()
-      length += token.value.length
-      screenLine.push token
+      nextToken = tokens[0]
+      if length + nextToken.value.length > @maxLength
+        # keep any leading whitespace on current line
+        if match = /\b/.exec(nextToken.value)
+          if match.index > 0
+            tokens[0..0] = @splitTokenAt(nextToken, match.index)
+          else
+            break
+      nextToken = tokens.shift()
+      length += nextToken.value.length
+      screenLine.push nextToken
 
     [screenLine].concat @splitTokens(tokens)
 
+  splitTokenAt: (token, index) ->
+    { type, value} = token
+    value1 = value.substring(0, index)
+    value2 = value.substring(index)
+    [{value: value1, type }, {value: value2, type}]
+
   buildWrappedLineForBufferRow: (bufferRow) ->
     wordRegex = getWordRegex()
     line = @buffer.getLine(bufferRow)