diff --git a/src/ui/public/doc_table/components/table_row.js b/src/ui/public/doc_table/components/table_row.js
index 7dfdfe24fa69e..530ddb996c3a9 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/doc_table/components/table_row.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/doc_table/components/table_row.js
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import $ from 'jquery';
-import addWordBreaks from 'ui/utils/add_word_breaks';
 import 'ui/highlight';
 import 'ui/highlight/highlight_tags';
 import 'ui/doc_viewer';
@@ -150,18 +149,14 @@ module.directive('kbnTableRow', function ($compile) {
       /**
        * Fill an element with the value of a field
        */
-      function _displayField(row, fieldName, breakWords) {
+      function _displayField(row, fieldName, truncate) {
         let indexPattern = $scope.indexPattern;
         let text = indexPattern.formatField(row, fieldName);
 
-        if (breakWords) {
-          text = addWordBreaks(text, MIN_LINE_LENGTH);
-
-          if (text.length > MIN_LINE_LENGTH) {
-            return truncateByHeightTemplate({
-              body: text
-            });
-          }
+        if (truncate && text.length > MIN_LINE_LENGTH) {
+          return truncateByHeightTemplate({
+            body: text
+          });
         }
 
         return text;
diff --git a/src/ui/public/doc_table/doc_table.less b/src/ui/public/doc_table/doc_table.less
index ffa44154ef05b..4f7b42eb4ff7d 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/doc_table/doc_table.less
+++ b/src/ui/public/doc_table/doc_table.less
@@ -6,6 +6,16 @@ doc-table {
 
   .discover-table-datafield {
     white-space: pre-wrap;
+
+    // break-word is what we really want but it hasn't been added to the standard and adopted by all browsers yet,
+    // so we provide break-all as a fallback
+    word-break: break-all;
+    word-break: break-word;
+  }
+
+  .discover-table-sourcefield {
+    word-break: break-all;
+    word-break: break-word;
   }
 
   .loading {
diff --git a/src/ui/public/utils/__tests__/add_word_breaks.js b/src/ui/public/utils/__tests__/add_word_breaks.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 594029f7e4045..0000000000000
--- a/src/ui/public/utils/__tests__/add_word_breaks.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-import _ from 'lodash';
-import expect from 'expect.js';
-import addWordBreaks from 'ui/utils/add_word_breaks';
-
-describe('addWordBreaks', function () {
-
-  let fixtures = [
-    ['aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>aaaaaaaaa'],
-    ['aaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaa aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>aaaa'],
-    ['aaaa;aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaa;aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>aaaa'],
-    ['aaaa:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaa:aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>aaaa'],
-    ['aaaa,aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaa,aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>aaaa'],
-    ['aaaa aaaa', 'aaaa aaaa'],
-    ['aaaa <mark>aaaa</mark>aaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaa <mark>aaaa</mark>aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>a'],
-    ['aaaa&quot;aaaaaaaaaaaa', 'aaaa&quot;aaaaaaaaaaa<wbr>a']
-  ];
-
-  _.each(fixtures, function (fixture) {
-    let msg = 'should convert ' + fixture[0] + ' to ' + fixture[1];
-    it(msg, function () {
-      let results = addWordBreaks(fixture[0], 10);
-      expect(results).to.be(fixture[1]);
-    });
-  });
-});
diff --git a/src/ui/public/utils/add_word_breaks.js b/src/ui/public/utils/add_word_breaks.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 6f2454e93ebe4..0000000000000
--- a/src/ui/public/utils/add_word_breaks.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
-define(function () {
-  return function addWordBreaks(text, minLineLength) {
-    text = text || '';
-    let lineSize = 0;
-    let newText = '';
-    let inHtmlTag = false;
-    let inHtmlChar = false;
-
-    for (let i = 0, len = text.length; i < len; i++) {
-      let chr = text.charAt(i);
-      newText += chr;
-
-      switch (chr) {
-        case ' ':
-        case ':':
-        case ',':
-          // natural line break, reset line size
-          lineSize = 0;
-          break;
-        case '<':
-          inHtmlTag = true;
-          break;
-        case '>':
-          inHtmlTag = false;
-          lineSize = 0;
-          break;
-        case '&':
-          inHtmlChar = true;
-          break;
-        case ';':
-          inHtmlChar = false;
-          lineSize = 0;
-          break;
-        default:
-          if (!inHtmlTag && !inHtmlChar) lineSize++;
-          break;
-      }
-
-      if (lineSize > minLineLength) {
-        // continuous text is longer then we want,
-        // so break it up with a <wbr>
-        lineSize = 0;
-        newText += '<wbr>';
-      }
-    }
-
-    return newText;
-  };
-});