diff --git a/src/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab/MorphologicalRules/SynthesisRealizationalAffixProcessRule.cs b/src/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab/MorphologicalRules/SynthesisRealizationalAffixProcessRule.cs
index 1ea640909..061ae9065 100644
--- a/src/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab/MorphologicalRules/SynthesisRealizationalAffixProcessRule.cs
+++ b/src/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab/MorphologicalRules/SynthesisRealizationalAffixProcessRule.cs
@@ -43,6 +43,24 @@ public IEnumerable<Word> Apply(Word input)
             if (!_morpher.RuleSelector(_rule))
                 return Enumerable.Empty<Word>();
 
+            // RealizationalRule has no multipleApplication attribute, so it applies at most once per
+            // word; otherwise a rule cascade that retries a matching rule against its own output would
+            // never terminate.
+            if (input.GetApplicationCount(_rule) >= 1)
+            {
+                if (_morpher.TraceManager.IsTracing)
+                {
+                    _morpher.TraceManager.MorphologicalRuleNotApplied(
+                        _rule,
+                        -1,
+                        input,
+                        FailureReason.MaxApplicationCount,
+                        1
+                    );
+                }
+                return Enumerable.Empty<Word>();
+            }
+
             if (!_rule.RealizationalFeatureStruct.Subsumes(input.RealizationalFeatureStruct))
                 return Enumerable.Empty<Word>();
 
diff --git a/tests/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab.Tests/MorpherTests.cs b/tests/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab.Tests/MorpherTests.cs
index ab5a3f483..3c92898e3 100644
--- a/tests/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab.Tests/MorpherTests.cs
+++ b/tests/SIL.Machine.Morphology.HermitCrab.Tests/MorpherTests.cs
@@ -141,6 +141,44 @@ public void AnalyzeWord_CanAnalyzeLinear_ReturnsCorrectAnalysis()
         );
     }
 
+    [Test]
+    public void ParseWord_UnblockedRealizationalRuleMatchesOwnOutput_DoesNotHang()
+    {
+        var any = FeatureStruct.New().Symbol(HCFeatureSystem.Segment).Value;
+
+        LexEntry entry = AddEntry(
+            "realtest",
+            FeatureStruct.New(Language.SyntacticFeatureSystem).Symbol("V").Value,
+            Morphophonemic,
+            "zag"
+        );
+        entry.MprFeatures.Add(Latinate);
+
+        var realRule = new RealizationalAffixProcessRule { Name = "real_rule", Gloss = "REAL" };
+        realRule.Allomorphs.Add(
+            new AffixProcessAllomorph
+            {
+                Lhs = { Pattern<Word, ShapeNode>.New("1").Annotation(any).OneOrMore.Value },
+                Rhs = { new CopyFromInput("1"), new InsertSegments(Table3, "d") },
+            }
+        );
+        realRule.Allomorphs[0].RequiredMprFeatures.Add(Latinate);
+        Morphophonemic.MorphologicalRules.Add(realRule);
+
+        SetRuleOrder(MorphologicalRuleOrder.Linear);
+        var morpher = new Morpher(TraceManager, Language);
+
+        Word[]? output = null;
+        bool completed = Task.Run(() => output = morpher.ParseWord("zag").ToArray()).Wait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
+
+        Assert.That(
+            completed,
+            Is.True,
+            "ParseWord did not return: the realizational rule reapplied to its own output without bound."
+        );
+        AssertMorphsEqual(output!, "realtest");
+    }
+
     [Test]
     public void AnalyzeWord_CannotAnalyze_ReturnsEmptyEnumerable()
     {