diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3e8b5267b..c766419c2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Canonicalization: collapse `scroll-p{t,b}-*` into `scroll-py-*`, `scroll-p{l,r}-*` into `scroll-px-*`, and `scroll-p{t,r,b,l}-*` into `scroll-p-*` ([#19842](https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/pull/19842))
 - Canonicalization: collapse `overflow-{x,y}-*` into `overflow-*` ([#19842](https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/pull/19842))
 - Canonicalization: collapse `overscroll-{x,y}-*` into `overscroll-*` ([#19842](https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/pull/19842))
+- Read from `--placeholder-color` instead of `--background-color` for `placeholder-*` utilities ([#19843](https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/pull/19843))
 
 ## [4.2.2] - 2026-03-18
 
diff --git a/packages/tailwindcss/src/utilities.ts b/packages/tailwindcss/src/utilities.ts
index 62e4510b7..a18def9e1 100644
--- a/packages/tailwindcss/src/utilities.ts
+++ b/packages/tailwindcss/src/utilities.ts
@@ -3960,7 +3960,7 @@ export function createUtilities(theme: Theme) {
   ])
 
   colorUtility('placeholder', {
-    themeKeys: ['--background-color', '--color'],
+    themeKeys: ['--placeholder-color', '--color'],
     handle: (value) => [
       styleRule('&::placeholder', [decl('--tw-sort', 'placeholder-color'), decl('color', value)]),
     ],