diff --git a/vllm/sampling_params.py b/vllm/sampling_params.py
index 76834e9bd7..23cdc33341 100644
--- a/vllm/sampling_params.py
+++ b/vllm/sampling_params.py
@@ -535,6 +535,12 @@ class SamplingParams(
                 "stop strings are only supported when detokenize is True. "
                 "Set detokenize=True to use stop."
             )
+        assert isinstance(self.bad_words, list)
+        if any(not bad_word for bad_word in self.bad_words):
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"bad_words cannot contain an empty string. "
+                f"Got bad_words={self.bad_words}"
+            )
 
     def _verify_greedy_sampling(self) -> None:
         if self.n > 1: