diff --git a/src/uu/nl/src/helper.rs b/src/uu/nl/src/helper.rs
index 6bbec85f444..0408adac65a 100644
--- a/src/uu/nl/src/helper.rs
+++ b/src/uu/nl/src/helper.rs
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 use std::ffi::OsString;
 
 use crate::options;
-use uucore::translate;
 
 // parse_options loads the options into the settings, returning an array of
 // error messages.
@@ -61,10 +60,8 @@ pub fn parse_options(settings: &mut crate::Settings, opts: &clap::ArgMatches) ->
         Some(Ok(style)) => settings.footer_numbering = style,
         Some(Err(message)) => errs.push(message),
     }
-    match opts.get_one::<usize>(options::NUMBER_WIDTH) {
-        None => {}
-        Some(num) if *num > 0 => settings.number_width = *num,
-        Some(_) => errs.push(translate!("nl-error-invalid-line-width", "value" => "0")),
+    if let Some(&num) = opts.get_one::<u64>(options::NUMBER_WIDTH) {
+        settings.number_width = num as usize;
     }
     if let Some(num) = opts.get_one::<u64>(options::JOIN_BLANK_LINES) {
         settings.join_blank_lines = *num;
diff --git a/src/uu/nl/src/nl.rs b/src/uu/nl/src/nl.rs
index 37ec112451a..34a4009c24c 100644
--- a/src/uu/nl/src/nl.rs
+++ b/src/uu/nl/src/nl.rs
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@ pub fn uu_app() -> Command {
                 .long(options::NUMBER_WIDTH)
                 .help(translate!("nl-help-number-width"))
                 .value_name("NUMBER")
-                .value_parser(clap::value_parser!(usize)),
+                .value_parser(clap::value_parser!(u64).range(1..=(i32::MAX as u64))),
         )
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_nl.rs b/tests/by-util/test_nl.rs
index c08c6a7b243..b5aff70629d 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_nl.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_nl.rs
@@ -183,10 +183,32 @@ fn test_number_width_zero() {
         new_ucmd!()
             .arg(arg)
             .fails()
-            .stderr_contains("Invalid line number field width: ‘0’: Numerical result out of range");
+            .stderr_contains("is not in 1..=2147483647");
     }
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_number_width_too_large() {
+    // Values > i32::MAX must be rejected to match GNU nl behaviour and avoid
+    // a capacity-overflow panic in " ".repeat(number_width + 1).
+    for arg in ["-w2147483648", "--number-width=2147483648"] {
+        new_ucmd!()
+            .arg(arg)
+            .pipe_in("")
+            .fails()
+            .stderr_contains("is not in 1..=2147483647");
+    }
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn test_number_width_max_i32() {
+    // i32::MAX (2147483647) is the largest value GNU nl accepts; it must not panic.
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&["-w", "2147483647"])
+        .pipe_in("")
+        .succeeds();
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_invalid_number_width() {
     for arg in ["-winvalid", "--number-width=invalid"] {