diff --git a/bin/cli.js b/bin/cli.js
index 03faa127ee2..bed161abea6 100755
--- a/bin/cli.js
+++ b/bin/cli.js
@@ -70,6 +70,21 @@ For more information, see https://webpack.js.org/api/cli/.`);
 		try {
 			options = require("./utils/convert-argv")(argv);
 		} catch (err) {
+			if (err.code === "MODULE_NOT_FOUND") {
+				let errorMessage =
+					"\n\u001b[31mwebpack not installed, consider installing it using \n\u001b[32mnpm install --save-dev webpack\n";
+
+				if (process.env.npm_execpath !== undefined && process.env.npm_execpath.includes("yarn")) {
+					errorMessage =
+						"\n\u001b[31mwebpack not installed, consider installing it using \n\u001b[32myarn add webpack --dev\n";
+				}
+
+				console.error(errorMessage);
+				Error.stackTraceLimit = 1;
+				process.exitCode = 1;
+				return;
+			}
+
 			if (err.name !== "ValidationError") {
 				throw err;
 			}