diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 5e87e986..54077685 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # roxygen2 (development version)
 
+* Arguments containing non-syntactic values surrounded by back ticks are now 
+  wrapped correctly (#1257).
+  
 * DOIs in the `URL` field of the `DESCRIPTION` are now converted to Rd's special
   `\doi{}` tag (@ThierryO, #1296).
 
diff --git a/src/wrapUsage.cpp b/src/wrapUsage.cpp
index ec063913..5a479caa 100644
--- a/src/wrapUsage.cpp
+++ b/src/wrapUsage.cpp
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ std::vector<std::string> splitByWhitespace(std::string string) {
     } else if (*cur == ' ' || *cur == '\t' || *cur == '\n') {
       out.push_back(acc);
       acc = "";
-    } else if (*cur == '"' || *cur == '\'') {
+    } else if (*cur == '"' || *cur == '\'' || *cur == '`') {
       in_string = *cur;
       acc += *cur;
     } else {
diff --git a/tests/testthat/_snaps/rd-usage.md b/tests/testthat/_snaps/rd-usage.md
index 9dfbd39b..99daed92 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/_snaps/rd-usage.md
+++ b/tests/testthat/_snaps/rd-usage.md
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@
       x,
       y,
       xy = "abcdef",
-      xyz = c(`word word word word` = "abcdef", `word word word` = "abcdef", `word word
-        word` = "abcdef", `word word word` = "abcdef")
+      xyz = c(`word word word word` = "abcdef", `word word word` = "abcdef",
+        `word word word` = "abcdef", `word word word` = "abcdef")
     )