diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index 26152b90a..0287549db 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -1683,6 +1683,12 @@ class Language:
         for proc in procs:
             proc.start()
 
+        # Close writing-end of channels. This is needed to avoid that reading
+        # from the channel blocks indefinitely when the worker closes the
+        # channel.
+        for tx in bytedocs_send_ch:
+            tx.close()
+
         # Cycle channels not to break the order of docs.
         # The received object is a batch of byte-encoded docs, so flatten them with chain.from_iterable.
         byte_tuples = chain.from_iterable(
@@ -1705,8 +1711,23 @@ class Language:
                     # tell `sender` that one batch was consumed.
                     sender.step()
         finally:
+            # If we are stopping in an orderly fashion, the workers' queues
+            # are empty. Put the sentinel in their queues to signal that work
+            # is done, so that they can exit gracefully.
+            for q in texts_q:
+                q.put(_WORK_DONE_SENTINEL)
+
+            # Otherwise, we are stopping because the error handler raised an
+            # exception. The sentinel will be last to go out of the queue.
+            # To avoid doing unnecessary work or hanging on platforms that
+            # block on sending (Windows), we'll close our end of the channel.
+            # This signals to the worker that it can exit the next time it
+            # attempts to send data down the channel.
+            for r in bytedocs_recv_ch:
+                r.close()
+
             for proc in procs:
-                proc.terminate()
+                proc.join()
 
     def _link_components(self) -> None:
         """Register 'listeners' within pipeline components, to allow them to
@@ -2323,6 +2344,11 @@ def _apply_pipes(
     while True:
         try:
             texts_with_ctx = receiver.get()
+
+            # Stop working if we encounter the end-of-work sentinel.
+            if isinstance(texts_with_ctx, _WorkDoneSentinel):
+                return
+
             docs = (
                 ensure_doc(doc_like, context) for doc_like, context in texts_with_ctx
             )
@@ -2331,11 +2357,21 @@ def _apply_pipes(
             # Connection does not accept unpickable objects, so send list.
             byte_docs = [(doc.to_bytes(), doc._context, None) for doc in docs]
             padding = [(None, None, None)] * (len(texts_with_ctx) - len(byte_docs))
-            sender.send(byte_docs + padding)  # type: ignore[operator]
+            data: Sequence[Tuple[Optional[bytes], Optional[Any], Optional[bytes]]] = (
+                byte_docs + padding  # type: ignore[operator]
+            )
         except Exception:
             error_msg = [(None, None, srsly.msgpack_dumps(traceback.format_exc()))]
             padding = [(None, None, None)] * (len(texts_with_ctx) - 1)
-            sender.send(error_msg + padding)
+            data = error_msg + padding
+
+        try:
+            sender.send(data)
+        except BrokenPipeError:
+            # Parent has closed the pipe prematurely. This happens when a
+            # worker encounters an error and the error handler is set to
+            # stop processing.
+            return
 
 
 class _Sender:
@@ -2365,3 +2401,10 @@ class _Sender:
         if self.count >= self.chunk_size:
             self.count = 0
             self.send()
+
+
+class _WorkDoneSentinel:
+    pass
+
+
+_WORK_DONE_SENTINEL = _WorkDoneSentinel()