diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index be52ee3db76..69c25fa14da 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #9481: autosummary: some warnings contain non-existing filenames
 * #9481: c domain: some warnings contain non-existing filenames
 * #9481: cpp domain: some warnings contain non-existing filenames
+* #9456: html search: abbreation marks are inserted to the search result if
+  failed to fetch the content of the page
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
index e09f9263f05..58ff35c4345 100644
--- a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
+++ b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
@@ -282,7 +282,10 @@ var Search = {
                   complete: function(jqxhr, textstatus) {
                     var data = jqxhr.responseText;
                     if (data !== '' && data !== undefined) {
-                      listItem.append(Search.makeSearchSummary(data, searchterms, hlterms));
+                      var summary = Search.makeSearchSummary(data, searchterms, hlterms);
+                      if (summary) {
+                        listItem.append(summary);
+                      }
                     }
                     Search.output.append(listItem);
                     setTimeout(function() {
@@ -498,6 +501,9 @@ var Search = {
    */
   makeSearchSummary : function(htmlText, keywords, hlwords) {
     var text = Search.htmlToText(htmlText);
+    if (text == "") {
+      return null;
+    }
     var textLower = text.toLowerCase();
     var start = 0;
     $.each(keywords, function() {