diff --git a/src/libcmd/markdown.cc b/src/libcmd/markdown.cc
index 6a0d05d9fba..4566e6ba63c 100644
--- a/src/libcmd/markdown.cc
+++ b/src/libcmd/markdown.cc
@@ -16,13 +16,25 @@ static std::string doRenderMarkdownToTerminal(std::string_view markdown)
 {
     int windowWidth = getWindowSize().second;
 
+#if HAVE_LOWDOWN_1_4
+    struct lowdown_opts_term opts_term {
+        .cols = (size_t) std::max(windowWidth - 5, 60),
+        .hmargin = 0,
+        .vmargin = 0,
+    };
+#endif
     struct lowdown_opts opts
     {
         .type = LOWDOWN_TERM,
+#if HAVE_LOWDOWN_1_4
+        .term = opts_term,
+#endif
         .maxdepth = 20,
+#if !HAVE_LOWDOWN_1_4
         .cols = (size_t) std::max(windowWidth - 5, 60),
         .hmargin = 0,
         .vmargin = 0,
+#endif
         .feat = LOWDOWN_COMMONMARK | LOWDOWN_FENCED | LOWDOWN_DEFLIST | LOWDOWN_TABLES,
         .oflags = LOWDOWN_TERM_NOLINK,
     };
diff --git a/src/libcmd/meson.build b/src/libcmd/meson.build
index c484cf998aa..f1a5a56c8e6 100644
--- a/src/libcmd/meson.build
+++ b/src/libcmd/meson.build
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ deps_public += nlohmann_json
 lowdown = dependency('lowdown', version : '>= 0.9.0', required : get_option('markdown'))
 deps_private += lowdown
 configdata.set('HAVE_LOWDOWN', lowdown.found().to_int())
+# The API changed slightly around terminal initialization.
+configdata.set('HAVE_LOWDOWN_1_4', lowdown.version().version_compare('>= 1.4.0').to_int())
 
 readline_flavor = get_option('readline-flavor')
 if readline_flavor == 'editline'