diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index c3fa58bf1c0..8c1147e3d3b 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -261,6 +261,9 @@ Other Changes
 * SOLR-5590: Upgrade HttpClient/HttpComponents to 4.3.x.
   (Karl Wright via Shawn Heisey)
 
+* pull request #11: change the default of hl.phraseLimit to 5000.
+  (Michael Della Bitta via Robert Muir)
+
 ==================  4.6.1  ==================
 
 Versions of Major Components
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java
index db2f01fe003..7bd9a07f0e8 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ public class DefaultSolrHighlighter extends SolrHighlighter implements PluginInf
         params.getBool( HighlightParams.USE_PHRASE_HIGHLIGHTER, true ),
         // FVH cannot process hl.requireFieldMatch parameter per-field basis
         params.getBool( HighlightParams.FIELD_MATCH, false ) );
-    fvh.setPhraseLimit(params.getInt(HighlightParams.PHRASE_LIMIT, Integer.MAX_VALUE));
+    fvh.setPhraseLimit(params.getInt(HighlightParams.PHRASE_LIMIT, SolrHighlighter.DEFAULT_PHRASE_LIMIT));
     FieldQuery fieldQuery = fvh.getFieldQuery( query, searcher.getIndexReader() );
 
     // Highlight each document
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/SolrHighlighter.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/SolrHighlighter.java
index a68c6d70a5b..1a41af94626 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/SolrHighlighter.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/SolrHighlighter.java
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ import org.apache.solr.util.SolrPluginUtils;
 
 public abstract class SolrHighlighter
 {
+
+  public static int DEFAULT_PHRASE_LIMIT = 5000;
   public static Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SolrHighlighter.class);
 
   @Deprecated