diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b06759892..338084f17 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ Validator                               | Description
 **isDecimal(str [, options])**             | check if the string represents a decimal number, such as 0.1, .3, 1.1, 1.00003, 4.0, etc.<br/><br/>`options` is an object which defaults to `{force_decimal: false, decimal_digits: '1,', locale: 'en-US'}`<br/><br/>`locale` determine the decimal separator and is one of `['ar', 'ar-AE', 'ar-BH', 'ar-DZ', 'ar-EG', 'ar-IQ', 'ar-JO', 'ar-KW', 'ar-LB', 'ar-LY', 'ar-MA', 'ar-QA', 'ar-QM', 'ar-SA', 'ar-SD', 'ar-SY', 'ar-TN', 'ar-YE', 'bg-BG', 'cs-CZ', 'da-DK', 'de-DE', 'en-AU', 'en-GB', 'en-HK', 'en-IN', 'en-NZ', 'en-US', 'en-ZA', 'en-ZM', 'es-ES', 'fr-FR', 'hu-HU', 'it-IT', 'ku-IQ', nb-NO', 'nl-NL', 'nn-NO', 'pl-PL', 'pt-BR', 'pt-PT', 'ru-RU', 'sr-RS', 'sr-RS@latin', 'sv-SE', 'tr-TR', 'uk-UA']`.<br/>**Note:** `decimal_digits` is given as a range like '1,3', a specific value like '3' or min like '1,'.
 **isDivisibleBy(str, number)**          | check if the string is a number that's divisible by another.
 **isEmail(str [, options])**            | check if the string is an email.<br/><br/>`options` is an object which defaults to `{ allow_display_name: false, require_display_name: false, allow_utf8_local_part: true, require_tld: true, allow_ip_domain: false, domain_specific_validation: false }`. If `allow_display_name` is set to true, the validator will also match `Display Name <email-address>`. If `require_display_name` is set to true, the validator will reject strings without the format `Display Name <email-address>`. If `allow_utf8_local_part` is set to false, the validator will not allow any non-English UTF8 character in email address' local part. If `require_tld` is set to false, e-mail addresses without having TLD in their domain will also be matched. If `allow_ip_domain` is set to true, the validator will allow IP addresses in the host part. If `domain_specific_validation` is true, some additional validation will be enabled, e.g. disallowing certain syntactically valid email addresses that are rejected by GMail.
-**isEmpty(str)**                        | check if the string has a length of zero.
+**isEmpty(str [, options])**            | check if the string has a length of zero.<br/><br/>`options` is an object which defaults to `{ ignore_whitespace:false }`.
 **isFQDN(str [, options])**             | check if the string is a fully qualified domain name (e.g. domain.com).<br/><br/>`options` is an object which defaults to `{ require_tld: true, allow_underscores: false, allow_trailing_dot: false }`.
 **isFloat(str [, options])**            | check if the string is a float.<br/><br/>`options` is an object which can contain the keys `min`, `max`, `gt`, and/or `lt` to validate the float is within boundaries (e.g. `{ min: 7.22, max: 9.55 }`) it also has `locale` as an option.<br/><br/>`min` and `max` are equivalent to 'greater or equal' and 'less or equal', respectively while `gt` and `lt` are their strict counterparts.<br/><br/>`locale` determine the decimal separator and is one of `['ar', 'ar-AE', 'ar-BH', 'ar-DZ', 'ar-EG', 'ar-IQ', 'ar-JO', 'ar-KW', 'ar-LB', 'ar-LY', 'ar-MA', 'ar-QA', 'ar-QM', 'ar-SA', 'ar-SD', 'ar-SY', 'ar-TN', 'ar-YE', 'bg-BG', 'cs-CZ', 'da-DK', 'de-DE', 'en-AU', 'en-GB', 'en-HK', 'en-IN', 'en-NZ', 'en-US', 'en-ZA', 'en-ZM', 'es-ES', 'fr-FR', 'hu-HU', 'it-IT', 'nb-NO', 'nl-NL', 'nn-NO', 'pl-PL', 'pt-BR', 'pt-PT', 'ru-RU', 'sr-RS', 'sr-RS@latin', 'sv-SE', 'tr-TR', 'uk-UA']`.
 **isFullWidth(str)**                    | check if the string contains any full-width chars.
diff --git a/lib/isEmpty.js b/lib/isEmpty.js
index f3e39e4df..fd1cab61d 100644
--- a/lib/isEmpty.js
+++ b/lib/isEmpty.js
@@ -9,10 +9,20 @@ var _assertString = require('./util/assertString');
 
 var _assertString2 = _interopRequireDefault(_assertString);
 
+var _merge = require('./util/merge');
+
+var _merge2 = _interopRequireDefault(_merge);
+
 function _interopRequireDefault(obj) { return obj && obj.__esModule ? obj : { default: obj }; }
 
-function isEmpty(str) {
+var default_is_empty_options = {
+  ignore_whitespace: false
+};
+
+function isEmpty(str, options) {
   (0, _assertString2.default)(str);
-  return str.length === 0;
+  options = (0, _merge2.default)(options, default_is_empty_options);
+
+  return (options.ignore_whitespace ? str.trim().length : str.length) === 0;
 }
 module.exports = exports['default'];
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/lib/isEmpty.js b/src/lib/isEmpty.js
index 1b1d906b3..eeb5997d0 100644
--- a/src/lib/isEmpty.js
+++ b/src/lib/isEmpty.js
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 import assertString from './util/assertString';
+import merge from './util/merge';
 
-export default function isEmpty(str) {
+const default_is_empty_options = {
+  ignore_whitespace: false,
+};
+
+export default function isEmpty(str, options) {
   assertString(str);
-  return str.length === 0;
+  options = merge(options, default_is_empty_options);
+
+  return (options.ignore_whitespace ? str.trim().length : str.length) === 0;
 }
diff --git a/test/validators.js b/test/validators.js
index d45b49a7b..2e1c03360 100644
--- a/test/validators.js
+++ b/test/validators.js
@@ -2510,6 +2510,30 @@ describe('Validators', () => {
         '3',
       ],
     });
+    test({
+      validator: 'isEmpty',
+      args: [{ ignore_whitespace: false }],
+      valid: [
+        '',
+      ],
+      invalid: [
+        ' ',
+        'foo',
+        '3',
+      ],
+    });
+    test({
+      validator: 'isEmpty',
+      args: [{ ignore_whitespace: true }],
+      valid: [
+        '',
+        ' ',
+      ],
+      invalid: [
+        'foo',
+        '3',
+      ],
+    });
   });
 
   it('should validate strings against an expected value', () => {