diff --git a/t/ui-lib-widgets.t b/t/ui-lib-widgets.t
index 08d53a4da..161b7c751 100644
--- a/t/ui-lib-widgets.t
+++ b/t/ui-lib-widgets.t
@@ -509,6 +509,17 @@ like(main::ui_form_columns_table('x.cgi', [ [ 'go', 'Go' ] ], 0, undef, undef,
 	is_deeply(\@disabled, [ 1, 0 ], 'themes receive the normalized disabled state');
 }
 
+# Three-argument callers retain legacy selected labels and order.
+{
+	my $values = [ [ 'b', 'Selected & saved' ], [ 'a', 'A' ] ];
+	my $options = [ [ 'a', 'R&D' ], [ 'b', 'Available' ] ];
+	my $html = main::ui_multi_select_list('short', $values, $options);
+	like($html, qr/name="short"[^>]*value="b\na"/,
+		'omitting size preserves the supplied selection order');
+	like($html, qr/>Selected &amp; saved</,
+		'omitting size preserves the selected description and escaped text');
+}
+
 # Positional calls preserve the old selected pane's labels and value order.
 {
 	my @values = ( [ 'b', 'B (selected)', q{disabled title="Selected"} ],
@@ -561,7 +572,7 @@ like(main::ui_form_columns_table('x.cgi', [ [ 'go', 'Go' ] ], 0, undef, undef,
 	my ($filter) = $html =~ /data-ui-multi-text="([^"]*)"/;
 	is($filter, $label, 'filter label retains original UTF-8 bytes and case');
 	my $literal = 'R&amp;D';
-	$html = main::ui_multi_select_list('g', [ ], [ [ 'team', $literal ] ]);
+	$html = main::ui_multi_select_list('g', [ ], [ [ 'team', $literal ] ], {});
 	($filter) = $html =~ /data-ui-multi-text="([^"]*)"/;
 	is(decode_attr($filter), $literal,
 		'filter text preserves literal HTML entity names in plain labels');
diff --git a/ui-lib.pl b/ui-lib.pl
index 767c91f18..6435b1dfd 100755
--- a/ui-lib.pl
+++ b/ui-lib.pl
@@ -5727,10 +5727,11 @@ Shift-click applies the clicked state from the last clicked entry to the
 current one, skipping filtered, folded and disabled entries. Labels and row
 backgrounds work too.
 
-Accepts an options hash or ui_multi_select's trailing positional arguments.
-Positional calls preserve selected labels, attributes, value order and
-pre-escaped label text. Newly selected entries are prepended as in the old
-widget. Size, add-if-missing, titles and width are ignored.
+Accepts an options hash or the legacy trailing positional arguments.
+Calls without an options hash preserve selected labels, attributes, value
+order and pre-escaped label text. Newly selected entries are prepended as in the old
+widget. Pass an options hash (even empty) for plain labels and option ordering.
+Size, add-if-missing, titles and width are ignored.
 
 =item name - HTML name for the input.
 
@@ -5764,7 +5765,7 @@ sub ui_multi_select_list
 return &theme_ui_multi_select_list(@_)
 	if (defined(&theme_ui_multi_select_list));
 my ($name, $values, $options, $opts) = @_;
-my $legacy = @_ > 3 && ref($opts) ne 'HASH';
+my $legacy = ref($opts) ne 'HASH';
 if (ref($opts) ne 'HASH') {
 	# Accept ui_multi_select's positional disabled argument.
 	$opts = { 'disabled' => $_[5] };