diff --git a/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/formatting.jl b/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/formatting.jl
index 4fd1cccedf7fb..bacd82f7ed021 100644
--- a/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/formatting.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/formatting.jl
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ wrapped_lines(io::IO, f::Function, args...; width = 80, i = 0) =
 
 function print_wrapped(io::IO, s...; width = 80, pre = "", i = 0)
     lines = wrapped_lines(io, s..., width = width, i = i)
+    isempty(lines) && return 0, 0
     print(io, lines[1])
     for line in lines[2:end]
         print(io, '\n', pre, line)
diff --git a/stdlib/Markdown/test/runtests.jl b/stdlib/Markdown/test/runtests.jl
index 286004707b8bd..f9983d10089f9 100644
--- a/stdlib/Markdown/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Markdown/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1213,3 +1213,12 @@ end
         |  $x  |
         """)
 end
+
+@testset "issue 40080: empty list item breaks display()" begin
+    d = TextDisplay(devnull)
+    display(d, md"""
+               1. hello
+               2.
+               """)
+end
+