diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5959a0373fc..67d71eca64b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ PHP                                                                        NEWS
 
 ?? ??? ????, PHP 7.4.6
 
+- DOM:
+  . Fixed bug #78221 (DOMNode::normalize() doesn't remove empty text nodes).
+    (cmb)
+
 - MBString:
   . Fixed bug #79441 (Segfault in mb_chr() if internal encoding is unsupported).
     (Girgias)
diff --git a/ext/dom/php_dom.c b/ext/dom/php_dom.c
index 726b74b9345..d5738e1060d 100644
--- a/ext/dom/php_dom.c
+++ b/ext/dom/php_dom.c
@@ -1385,6 +1385,14 @@ void dom_normalize (xmlNodePtr nodep)
 						break;
 					}
 				}
+				strContent = xmlNodeGetContent(child);
+				if (*strContent == '\0') {
+					nextp = child->next;
+					xmlUnlinkNode(child);
+					php_libxml_node_free_resource(child);
+					child = nextp;
+					continue;
+				}
 				break;
 			case XML_ELEMENT_NODE:
 				dom_normalize (child);
diff --git a/ext/dom/tests/bug78221.phpt b/ext/dom/tests/bug78221.phpt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a9bf50d98ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ext/dom/tests/bug78221.phpt
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+--TEST--
+Bug #78221 (DOMNode::normalize() doesn't remove empty text nodes)
+--SKIPIF--
+<?php
+if (!extension_loaded('dom')) die('skip dom extension not available');
+?>
+--FILE--
+<?php
+$doc = new DOMDocument();
+$doc->loadHTML('<p id=x>foo</p>');
+$p = $doc->getElementById('x');
+$p->childNodes[0]->textContent = '';
+$p->normalize();
+var_dump($p->childNodes->length);
+?>
+--EXPECT--
+int(0)