diff --git a/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/bitmap_canvas.dart b/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/bitmap_canvas.dart
index 0ff402c6190f4..bc589172e4be8 100644
--- a/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/bitmap_canvas.dart
+++ b/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/bitmap_canvas.dart
@@ -447,7 +447,7 @@ class BitmapCanvas extends EngineCanvas {
     x += line.left;
     final double letterSpacing = style.letterSpacing;
     if (letterSpacing == null || letterSpacing == 0.0) {
-      ctx.fillText(line.text, x, y);
+      ctx.fillText(line.displayText, x, y);
     } else {
       // When letter-spacing is set, we go through a more expensive code path
       // that renders each character separately with the correct spacing
@@ -459,9 +459,9 @@ class BitmapCanvas extends EngineCanvas {
       // would put 5px before each letter and 5px after it, but on the web, we
       // put no spacing before the letter and 10px after it. This is how the DOM
       // does it.
-      final int len = line.text.length;
+      final int len = line.displayText.length;
       for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
-        final String char = line.text[i];
+        final String char = line.displayText[i];
         ctx.fillText(char, x, y);
         x += letterSpacing + ctx.measureText(char).width;
       }
diff --git a/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/text/paragraph.dart b/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/text/paragraph.dart
index 6f5249d1e5cba..a9d73ae667ef6 100644
--- a/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/text/paragraph.dart
+++ b/lib/web_ui/lib/src/engine/text/paragraph.dart
@@ -16,13 +16,13 @@ class EngineLineMetrics implements ui.LineMetrics {
     this.left,
     this.baseline,
     this.lineNumber,
-  })  : text = null,
+  })  : displayText = null,
         startIndex = -1,
         endIndex = -1,
         endIndexWithoutNewlines = -1;
 
   EngineLineMetrics.withText(
-    this.text, {
+    this.displayText, {
     @required this.startIndex,
     @required this.endIndex,
     @required this.endIndexWithoutNewlines,
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class EngineLineMetrics implements ui.LineMetrics {
     @required this.left,
     this.baseline,
     @required this.lineNumber,
-  })  : assert(text != null),
+  })  : assert(displayText != null),
         assert(startIndex != null),
         assert(endIndex != null),
         assert(endIndexWithoutNewlines != null),
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ class EngineLineMetrics implements ui.LineMetrics {
         assert(left != null),
         assert(lineNumber != null && lineNumber >= 0);
 
-  /// The textual content representing this line.
-  final String text;
+  /// The text to be rendered on the screen representing this line.
+  final String displayText;
 
   /// The index (inclusive) in the text where this line begins.
   final int startIndex;
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class EngineLineMetrics implements ui.LineMetrics {
 
   @override
   int get hashCode => ui.hashValues(
-        text,
+        displayText,
         startIndex,
         endIndex,
         hardBreak,
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ class EngineLineMetrics implements ui.LineMetrics {
       return false;
     }
     final EngineLineMetrics typedOther = other;
-    return text == typedOther.text &&
+    return displayText == typedOther.displayText &&
         startIndex == typedOther.startIndex &&
         endIndex == typedOther.endIndex &&
         hardBreak == typedOther.hardBreak &&
diff --git a/lib/web_ui/test/text/measurement_test.dart b/lib/web_ui/test/text/measurement_test.dart
index ef2ebf534a0fb..919e5fc97ae61 100644
--- a/lib/web_ui/test/text/measurement_test.dart
+++ b/lib/web_ui/test/text/measurement_test.dart
@@ -1138,7 +1138,7 @@ void main() async {
 
 /// Shortcut to avoid many line wraps in the tests above.
 EngineLineMetrics line(
-  String text,
+  String displayText,
   int startIndex,
   int endIndex, {
   double width,
@@ -1147,7 +1147,7 @@ EngineLineMetrics line(
   double left,
 }) {
   return EngineLineMetrics.withText(
-    text,
+    displayText,
     startIndex: startIndex,
     endIndex: endIndex,
     hardBreak: hardBreak,