diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b9cc8566c..edf58365f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 * Javadoc commands take into account the variable `clojure.java.javadoc/*remote-javadocs*`.
 * Javadoc also works on classes of the AmazonAWS Java SDK.
+* Apropos commands now accept lists of space-separated words as arguments, in addition to regular expressions (similar to Emacs's own apropos commands).
 
 ## 0.11.0 / 2016-03-03
 
diff --git a/cider-apropos.el b/cider-apropos.el
index 3ba69e089..faf4a346d 100644
--- a/cider-apropos.el
+++ b/cider-apropos.el
@@ -101,8 +101,11 @@
 ;;;###autoload
 (defun cider-apropos (query &optional ns docs-p privates-p case-sensitive-p)
   "Show all symbols whose names match QUERY, a regular expression.
-The search may be limited to the namespace NS, and may optionally search doc
-strings, include private vars, and be case sensitive."
+QUERY can also be a list of space-separated words (e.g. take while) which
+will be converted to a regular expression (like take.+while) automatically
+behind the scenes.  The search may be limited to the namespace NS, and may
+optionally search doc strings, include private vars, and be case
+sensitive."
   (interactive
    (cons (read-string "Search for Clojure symbol (a regular expression): ")
          (when current-prefix-arg
diff --git a/cider-client.el b/cider-client.el
index dc98dd448..f6dca5e24 100644
--- a/cider-client.el
+++ b/cider-client.el
@@ -789,15 +789,16 @@ If CALLBACK is nil, use `cider-load-file-handler'."
   "Send \"apropos\" request for regexp QUERY.
 
 Optional arguments include SEARCH-NS, DOCS-P, PRIVATES-P, CASE-SENSITIVE-P."
-  (let ((response (cider-nrepl-send-sync-request
-                   `("op" "apropos"
-                     "session" ,(cider-current-session)
-                     "ns" ,(cider-current-ns)
-                     "query" ,query
-                     ,@(when search-ns `("search-ns" ,search-ns))
-                     ,@(when docs-p '("docs?" "t"))
-                     ,@(when privates-p '("privates?" "t"))
-                     ,@(when case-sensitive-p '("case-sensitive?" "t"))))))
+  (let* ((query (replace-regexp-in-string "[ \t]+" ".+" query))
+         (response (cider-nrepl-send-sync-request
+                    `("op" "apropos"
+                      "session" ,(cider-current-session)
+                      "ns" ,(cider-current-ns)
+                      "query" ,query
+                      ,@(when search-ns `("search-ns" ,search-ns))
+                      ,@(when docs-p '("docs?" "t"))
+                      ,@(when privates-p '("privates?" "t"))
+                      ,@(when case-sensitive-p '("case-sensitive?" "t"))))))
     (if (member "apropos-regexp-error" (nrepl-dict-get response "status"))
         (user-error "Invalid regexp: %s" (nrepl-dict-get response "error-msg"))
       (nrepl-dict-get response "apropos-matches"))))