diff --git a/src/uu/paste/src/paste.rs b/src/uu/paste/src/paste.rs
index 2a7f896c34b..f12a85a663d 100644
--- a/src/uu/paste/src/paste.rs
+++ b/src/uu/paste/src/paste.rs
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ pub fn uu_app() -> Command {
                 .value_name("LIST")
                 .default_value("\t")
                 .hide_default_value(true)
+                .allow_hyphen_values(true)
                 .value_parser(clap::value_parser!(OsString)),
         )
         .arg(
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_paste.rs b/tests/by-util/test_paste.rs
index c07b0fcaaa5..4d9c8ca7e36 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_paste.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_paste.rs
@@ -166,6 +166,19 @@ fn test_invalid_arg() {
     new_ucmd!().arg("--definitely-invalid").fails_with_code(1);
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_delimiter_hyphen_leading_as_separate_arg() {
+    // A hyphen-leading delimiter value passed as its own argument (not
+    // attached with `-d-x`/`=`) must not be mistaken for a new,
+    // unrecognized flag.
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.write("f1", "a\nb\n");
+    at.write("f2", "1\n2\n");
+    ucmd.args(&["-d", "-x", "f1", "f2"])
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_is("a-1\nb-2\n");
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_combine_pairs_of_lines() {
     for s in ["-s", "--serial"] {