diff --git a/frontend/apps/reader/modules/readerdictionary.lua b/frontend/apps/reader/modules/readerdictionary.lua
index 3d2104247..9a93b22e6 100644
--- a/frontend/apps/reader/modules/readerdictionary.lua
+++ b/frontend/apps/reader/modules/readerdictionary.lua
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ local function tidy_markup(results)
         end
         -- ignore all markup tags
         def = def:gsub("%b<>", "")
+        -- strip all leading empty lines/spaces
+        def = def:gsub("^%s+", "")
         result.definition = def
     end
     return results