diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f300262eba..14864e433c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 - BREAKING: `AppFocus` and `AppBlur` are now posted when the terminal window gains or loses focus, if the terminal supports this https://github.com/Textualize/textual/pull/4265
   - When the terminal window loses focus, the currently-focused widget will also lose focus.
   - When the terminal window regains focus, the previously-focused widget will regain focus.
+- TextArea binding for <key>ctrl</key>+<key>k</key> will now delete the line if the line is empty https://github.com/Textualize/textual/issues/4277
 
 ## [0.52.1] - 2024-02-20
 
diff --git a/src/textual/widgets/_text_area.py b/src/textual/widgets/_text_area.py
index 61042474fd..dc2ea49d44 100644
--- a/src/textual/widgets/_text_area.py
+++ b/src/textual/widgets/_text_area.py
@@ -219,7 +219,12 @@ class TextArea(ScrollView):
         Binding(
             "ctrl+u", "delete_to_start_of_line", "delete to line start", show=False
         ),
-        Binding("ctrl+k", "delete_to_end_of_line", "delete to line end", show=False),
+        Binding(
+            "ctrl+k",
+            "delete_to_end_of_line_or_delete_line",
+            "delete to line end",
+            show=False,
+        ),
         Binding("ctrl+z", "undo", "Undo", show=False),
         Binding("ctrl+y", "redo", "Redo", show=False),
     ]
@@ -2112,6 +2117,26 @@ def action_delete_to_end_of_line(self) -> None:
         to_location = self.get_cursor_line_end_location()
         self._delete_via_keyboard(from_location, to_location)
 
+    async def action_delete_to_end_of_line_or_delete_line(self) -> None:
+        """Deletes from the cursor location to the end of the line, or deletes the line.
+
+        The line will be deleted if the line is empty.
+        """
+        # Assume we're just going to delete to the end of the line.
+        action = "delete_to_end_of_line"
+        if self.get_cursor_line_start_location() == self.get_cursor_line_end_location():
+            # The line is empty, so we'll simply remove the line itself.
+            action = "delete_line"
+        elif (
+            self.selection.start
+            == self.selection.end
+            == self.get_cursor_line_end_location()
+        ):
+            # We're at the end of the line, so the kill delete operation
+            # should join the next line to this.
+            action = "delete_right"
+        await self.run_action(action)
+
     def action_delete_word_left(self) -> None:
         """Deletes the word to the left of the cursor and updates the cursor location."""
         if self.cursor_at_start_of_text: