diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/is/ispell/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/is/ispell/package.nix
index e7b97ffe11c0..08d17d88fd61 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/is/ispell/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/is/ispell/package.nix
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     EOF
   '';
 
+  env.NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = "-std=gnu17"; # Doesn't compile with C23
+
   meta = {
     description = "Interactive spell-checking program for Unix";
     homepage = "https://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/ispell.html";