diff --git a/format.c b/format.c
index 7785c9029..8723f2e03 100644
--- a/format.c
+++ b/format.c
@@ -4525,11 +4525,14 @@ format_build_modifiers(struct format_expand_state *es, const char **s,
 	return (list);
 }
 
-/* Fuzzy match strings. */
+/* Fuzzy match a single token (no spaces). */
 static int
-format_fuzzy_match(const char *pattern, const char *text, int icase)
+format_fuzzy_match_token(const char *pattern, size_t patternlen,
+    const char *text, int icase)
 {
-	while (*pattern != '\0') {
+	const char	*end = pattern + patternlen;
+
+	while (pattern != end) {
 		if (*text == '\0')
 			return (0);
 		if (icase) {
@@ -4544,6 +4547,31 @@ format_fuzzy_match(const char *pattern, const char *text, int icase)
 	return (1);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Fuzzy match strings. The pattern is split on spaces into tokens and every
+ * token must match as a sequence.
+ */
+static int
+format_fuzzy_match(const char *pattern, const char *text, int icase)
+{
+	const char	*start;
+	size_t		 len;
+
+	while (*pattern != '\0') {
+		while (*pattern == ' ')
+			pattern++;
+		if (*pattern == '\0')
+			break;
+		start = pattern;
+		while (*pattern != '\0' && *pattern != ' ')
+			pattern++;
+		len = pattern - start;
+		if (!format_fuzzy_match_token(start, len, text, icase))
+			return (0);
+	}
+	return (1);
+}
+
 /* Match against an fnmatch(3) pattern or regular expression. */
 static char *
 format_match(struct format_modifier *fm, const char *pattern, const char *text)
diff --git a/tmux.1 b/tmux.1
index 9b40702f2..d93dce675 100644
--- a/tmux.1
+++ b/tmux.1
@@ -6387,7 +6387,8 @@ means the pattern is a regular expression instead of the default
 pattern,
 .Ql z
 means the pattern is a fuzzy match, that is, it matches if its characters
-appear in the string in order but not necessarily consecutively,
+appear in the string in order but not necessarily consecutively;
+the pattern is split on spaces into separate terms which must all match,
 and
 .Ql i
 means to ignore case.