diff --git a/src/uu/wc/src/wc.rs b/src/uu/wc/src/wc.rs
index b7600cb2090..06f9be9168e 100644
--- a/src/uu/wc/src/wc.rs
+++ b/src/uu/wc/src/wc.rs
@@ -580,9 +580,8 @@ fn process_chunk<
         if SHOW_WORDS {
             if ch.is_whitespace() {
                 *in_word = false;
-            } else if ch.is_ascii_control() {
-                // These count as characters but do not affect the word state
             } else if !(*in_word) {
+                // This also counts control characters! (As of GNU coreutils 9.5)
                 *in_word = true;
                 total.words += 1;
             }
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_wc.rs b/tests/by-util/test_wc.rs
index c0a4a341319..0202ba4e889 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_wc.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_wc.rs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ fn test_utf8_words() {
         .arg("-w")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("87\n");
+        .stdout_is("89\n");
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ fn test_utf8_line_length_words() {
         .arg("-Lw")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("     87      48\n");
+        .stdout_is("     89      48\n");
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ fn test_utf8_line_length_chars_words() {
         .arg("-Lmw")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("     87     442      48\n");
+        .stdout_is("     89     442      48\n");
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ fn test_utf8_chars_words() {
         .arg("-mw")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("     87     442\n");
+        .stdout_is("     89     442\n");
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ fn test_utf8_line_length_lines_words() {
         .arg("-Llw")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("     25      87      48\n");
+        .stdout_is("     25      89      48\n");
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ fn test_utf8_lines_words_chars() {
         .arg("-mlw")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("     25      87     442\n");
+        .stdout_is("     25      89     442\n");
 }
 
 #[test]
@@ -197,7 +197,17 @@ fn test_utf8_all() {
         .arg("-lwmcL")
         .pipe_in_fixture("UTF_8_weirdchars.txt")
         .run()
-        .stdout_is("     25      87     442     513      48\n");
+        .stdout_is("     25      89     442     513      48\n");
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn test_ascii_control() {
+    // GNU coreutils "d1" test
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .arg("-w")
+        .pipe_in(*b"\x01\n")
+        .run()
+        .stdout_is("1\n");
 }
 
 #[test]