diff --git a/src/uu/numfmt/src/numfmt.rs b/src/uu/numfmt/src/numfmt.rs
index ba76b7f77..f6a1f2739 100644
--- a/src/uu/numfmt/src/numfmt.rs
+++ b/src/uu/numfmt/src/numfmt.rs
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ pub fn uu_app() -> Command {
                 .long(options::FIELD)
                 .help("replace the numbers in these input fields; see FIELDS below")
                 .value_name("FIELDS")
+                .allow_hyphen_values(true)
                 .default_value(options::FIELD_DEFAULT),
         )
         .arg(
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_numfmt.rs b/tests/by-util/test_numfmt.rs
index 821b8e70b..49de861fb 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_numfmt.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_numfmt.rs
@@ -375,6 +375,14 @@ fn test_format_selected_fields() {
         .stdout_only("1000 2K 3000 4000 5K 6K\n");
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_format_implied_range_and_field() {
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&["--from=auto", "--field", "-2,4", "1K 2K 3K 4K 5K 6K"])
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_only("1000 2000 3K 4000 5K 6K\n");
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_should_succeed_if_selected_field_out_of_range() {
     new_ucmd!()