diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/tokenattributes/TermAttribute.java b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/tokenattributes/TermAttribute.java
index 8aa05071967..0642148f32e 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/tokenattributes/TermAttribute.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/tokenattributes/TermAttribute.java
@@ -171,7 +171,6 @@ public class TermAttribute extends Attribute implements Cloneable, Serializable
   /** Return number of valid characters (length of the term)
    *  in the termBuffer array. */
   public int termLength() {
-    initTermBuffer();
     return termLength;
   }