diff --git a/scripts/badwords b/scripts/badwords
index 09676bacd9..f833573af7 100755
--- a/scripts/badwords
+++ b/scripts/badwords
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ sub file {
 }
 
 my @filemasks = @ARGV;
-open(my $git_ls_files, '-|', 'git', 'ls-files', '--', @filemasks) or die "Failed running git ls-files: $!";
+open(my $git_ls_files, '-|', 'git', 'ls-files', '--', ":!:$file", @filemasks) or die "Failed running git ls-files: $!";
 my @files;
 while(my $each = <$git_ls_files>) {
     chomp $each;