diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3a6728405d0f..47d55dd0fe86 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 **Breaking changes**
 
+- Changed `EuiSearchBar` to preserve phrases with leading and trailing spaces, instead of dropping surrounding whitespace ([#5514](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/5514))
 - Removed `data-test-subj="dataGridWrapper"`  from `EuiDataGrid` in favor of `data-test-subj="euiDataGridBody"` ([#5506](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/5506))
 
 ## [`44.0.0`](https://github.com/elastic/eui/tree/v44.0.0)
diff --git a/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.test.ts b/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.test.ts
index df51fdc8f26d..0114d50582f1 100644
--- a/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.test.ts
+++ b/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.test.ts
@@ -562,8 +562,8 @@ describe('defaultSyntax', () => {
     expect(printedQuery).toBe(query);
   });
 
-  test('relaxed phrases with spaces', () => {
-    const query = 'f:" this is a relaxed phrase \t"';
+  test('phrases with spaces', () => {
+    const query = 'f:" this is a phrase that preserves spaces\t"';
     const ast = defaultSyntax.parse(query);
 
     expect(ast).toBeDefined();
@@ -574,10 +574,10 @@ describe('defaultSyntax', () => {
     expect(AST.Field.isInstance(clause)).toBe(true);
     expect(AST.Match.isMustClause(clause)).toBe(true);
     expect(clause.field).toBe('f');
-    expect(clause.value).toBe('this is a relaxed phrase');
+    expect(clause.value).toBe(' this is a phrase that preserves spaces	');
 
     const printedQuery = defaultSyntax.print(ast);
-    expect(printedQuery).toBe('f:"this is a relaxed phrase"');
+    expect(printedQuery).toBe('f:" this is a phrase that preserves spaces	"');
   });
 
   test('phrases with extra characters', () => {
diff --git a/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts b/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts
index 0e054276891f..d538b5295754 100644
--- a/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts
+++ b/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts
@@ -146,9 +146,9 @@ containsValue
   / word
 
 phrase
-  = '"' space? phrase:(
-  	(phraseWord+)? (space phraseWord+)* { return unescapePhraseValue(text()); }
-  ) space? '"' { return Exp.string(phrase, location()); }
+  = '"' phrase:(
+  	space? (phraseWord+)? (space phraseWord+)* space? { return unescapePhraseValue(text()); }
+  ) '"' { return Exp.string(phrase, location()); }
 
 phraseWord
   // not a backslash, quote, or space