diff --git a/src/dep.h b/src/dep.h
index d44a507a..87872600 100644
--- a/src/dep.h
+++ b/src/dep.h
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ struct goaldep
 #define PARSEFS_NOGLOB  0x0004
 #define PARSEFS_EXISTS  0x0008
 #define PARSEFS_NOCACHE 0x0010
+#define PARSEFS_ONEWORD 0x0020
 
 #define PARSE_FILE_SEQ(_s,_t,_c,_p,_f) \
             (_t *)parse_file_seq ((_s),sizeof (_t),(_c),(_p),(_f))
diff --git a/src/implicit.c b/src/implicit.c
index f7b8c152..96f453c8 100644
--- a/src/implicit.c
+++ b/src/implicit.c
@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ pattern_search (struct file *file, int archive,
 
                   /* Parse the expanded string.  It might have wildcards.  */
                   p = depname;
-                  dl = PARSE_SIMPLE_SEQ (&p, struct dep);
+                  dl = PARSE_FILE_SEQ (&p, struct dep, MAP_NUL, NULL, PARSEFS_ONEWORD);
                   for (d = dl; d != NULL; d = d->next)
                     {
                       ++deps_found;
diff --git a/src/read.c b/src/read.c
index 5df9c2a3..eec1c338 100644
--- a/src/read.c
+++ b/src/read.c
@@ -3138,7 +3138,10 @@ parse_file_seq (char **stringp, size_t size, int stopmap,
   char *p;
   glob_t gl;
   char *tp;
-  int findmap = stopmap|MAP_VMSCOMMA|MAP_BLANK|MAP_NUL;
+  int findmap = stopmap|MAP_VMSCOMMA|MAP_NUL;
+
+  if (NONE_SET (flags, PARSEFS_ONEWORD))
+    findmap |= MAP_BLANK;
 
   /* Always stop on NUL.  */
   stopmap |= MAP_NUL;
diff --git a/tests/scripts/features/patternrules b/tests/scripts/features/patternrules
index c2a8c985..09197f51 100644
--- a/tests/scripts/features/patternrules
+++ b/tests/scripts/features/patternrules
@@ -236,6 +236,14 @@ all: a.elf a.dbg
 
 unlink('a.c');
 
+# SV 56655: Test patterns matching files containing whitespace
+touch('some file.yy');
+run_make_test(q!
+%.xx : %.yy ; @echo matched
+!, 'some\ file.xx', "matched\n");
+
+unlink('some file.xx', 'some file.yy');
+
 # This tells the test driver that the perl test script executed properly.
 1;