diff --git a/component-catalog-app/Examples/Highlighter.elm b/component-catalog-app/Examples/Highlighter.elm
index 45621f73..3ae9a1f9 100644
--- a/component-catalog-app/Examples/Highlighter.elm
+++ b/component-catalog-app/Examples/Highlighter.elm
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import Nri.Ui.Button.V10 as Button
 import Nri.Ui.Colors.V1 as Colors
 import Nri.Ui.Fonts.V1 as Fonts
 import Nri.Ui.Heading.V3 as Heading
-import Nri.Ui.Highlightable.V1 as Highlightable exposing (Highlightable)
+import Nri.Ui.Highlightable.V2 as Highlightable exposing (Highlightable)
 import Nri.Ui.Highlighter.V3 as Highlighter
 import Nri.Ui.HighlighterTool.V1 as Tool
 import Nri.Ui.Table.V6 as Table
diff --git a/src/Nri/Ui/Highlightable/V2.elm b/src/Nri/Ui/Highlightable/V2.elm
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..29c6dd4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Nri/Ui/Highlightable/V2.elm
@@ -0,0 +1,475 @@
+module Nri.Ui.Highlightable.V2 exposing
+    ( Highlightable, Type(..), UIState(..), Attribute(..)
+    , init, initFragment, initFragments
+    , fromMarkdown
+    , splitHighlightableOnWords, splitWords
+    , blur, clearHint, hint, hover
+    , set, toggle
+    , attributeSorter
+    , asFragmentTuples, usedMarkers, text
+    )
+
+{-| A Highlightable represents a span of text, typically a word, and its state.
+
+Highlightable is the unit by which text-wrapping happens. Depending on how the
+Highlighter is initialized, it's very possible for a Highlightable to consist of
+just a single whitespace.
+
+
+## Patch changes
+
+  - move asFragmentTuples, usedMarkers, and text to the Highlightable module
+
+
+## Types
+
+@docs Highlightable, Type, UIState, Attribute
+
+
+## Initializers
+
+@docs init, initFragment, initFragments
+@docs fromMarkdown
+
+
+## Transformations
+
+@docs splitHighlightableOnWords, splitWords
+
+
+## UIState related
+
+@docs blur, clearHint, hint, hover
+
+
+## Marker related
+
+@docs set, toggle
+
+
+## Attribute related
+
+@docs attributeSorter
+
+
+## Getters
+
+@docs asFragmentTuples, usedMarkers, text
+
+-}
+
+import List.Extra
+import Markdown.Block
+import Markdown.Inline
+import Nri.Ui.Colors.V1 as Colors
+import Nri.Ui.HighlighterTool.V1 as Tool
+import Regex exposing (Regex)
+import Sort exposing (Sorter)
+import Sort.Set
+import String.Extra
+
+
+{-| A Highlightable comes in two flavors:
+
+  - **Highlightable** | Interactive piece of text.
+
+  - **Static** | Non-interactive piece of text. Gets highlighted grudgingly if the
+    UI is going to get unintuitive otherwise. i.e. does not get highlighted
+    when hovered etc.
+
+    Data for a Highlightable:
+
+  - **text**: String to display.
+
+  - **uiState**: How the user is currently interacting with the Highlightable.
+
+  - **customAttributes**: User-supplied attributes that do not change once a Highlightable is initialized.
+
+  - **marked**: Current highlight.
+
+  - **groupIndex**: Index that identifies the fragment this Highlightable belongs to.
+
+-}
+type alias Highlightable marker =
+    { text : String
+    , uiState : UIState
+    , customAttributes : List Attribute
+    , marked : Maybe (Tool.MarkerModel marker)
+    , groupIndex : Int
+    , type_ : Type
+    }
+
+
+{-| -}
+type Type
+    = Interactive
+    | Static
+
+
+{-| Custom attributes that do not change after initialization.
+
+  - `Class`: add a class to the highlight
+  - `Data`: add a `data-X` to the highlight (you don't need to prepend
+    `data-` to this name.)
+
+-}
+type Attribute
+    = Class String
+    | Data String String
+
+
+{-| A Sorter for Attributes
+-}
+attributeSorter : Sorter Attribute
+attributeSorter =
+    Sort.by
+        (\elem ->
+            case elem of
+                Class class ->
+                    "class-" ++ class
+
+                Data key value ->
+                    "data-" ++ key ++ "-" ++ value
+        )
+        Sort.alphabetical
+
+
+{-| UIState connects user-behavior to the highlightable.
+
+State transitions:
+
+  - None → (mouse over) → Hovered
+  - None → (click & drag over highlightables) → Hinted
+  - Hovered → (mouse out) → None
+  - Hovered → (mouse down) → Hinted
+  - Hinted → (mouse out) → None
+  - Hinted → (mouse up while on a different Highlightable) → None
+  - Hinted → (mouse up while on me) → Hovered
+
+-}
+type UIState
+    = Hovered
+    | Hinted
+    | None
+
+
+{-| -}
+init : Type -> Maybe (Tool.MarkerModel marker) -> Int -> ( List Attribute, String ) -> Highlightable marker
+init type_ marked index ( attributes, text_ ) =
+    { text = text_
+    , uiState = None
+    , customAttributes = attributes
+    , marked = marked
+    , groupIndex = index
+    , type_ = type_
+    }
+
+
+{-| Split a multi-word string into multiple single-word highlights.
+This is to deal with the highlighter not doing line breaks within a highlight group,
+which can look funny if a highlight contains longer text.
+-}
+initFragment : Maybe (Tool.MarkerModel marker) -> Int -> List ( List Attribute, String ) -> List (Highlightable marker)
+initFragment marked index spans =
+    let
+        splitSpan ( classes, text_ ) =
+            text_
+                |> splitWords
+                |> List.filter (not << String.isEmpty)
+                |> List.map (Tuple.pair classes)
+    in
+    spans
+        |> List.concatMap splitSpan
+        |> List.map (init Interactive marked index)
+
+
+whitespace : Regex
+whitespace =
+    Regex.fromString "\\s+"
+        |> Maybe.withDefault Regex.never
+
+
+{-| Similar to initFragment but each word is treated as a fragment,
+instead of treating the whole string as a fragment.
+
+Note that we're transforming all whitespace to spaces, so newlines are not preserved
+as me move to and from fragments
+
+-}
+initFragments : Maybe (Tool.MarkerModel marker) -> String -> List (Highlightable marker)
+initFragments marked text_ =
+    let
+        spaceOrInit index maybeWord =
+            case maybeWord of
+                Just word ->
+                    init Interactive marked index ( [], word )
+
+                Nothing ->
+                    init Static Nothing index ( [], " " )
+    in
+    Regex.split whitespace text_
+        |> List.map Just
+        |> List.intersperse Nothing
+        |> List.indexedMap spaceOrInit
+
+
+{-| How do we know which elements should be marked, if all we have is a markdown string?
+
+We do some funky parsing to interpret empty anchor tags and tagged spans as highlighted!
+
+    fromMarkdown "for example, [this phrase]() will show as highlighted"
+
+will result in a list of highlightables where "this phrase" is marked with the default marker.
+
+-}
+fromMarkdown : String -> List (Highlightable ())
+fromMarkdown markdownString =
+    let
+        static maybeMark mapStrings c =
+            init Static maybeMark -1 ( [], mapStrings c )
+
+        defaultMark =
+            Tool.buildMarker
+                { highlightColor = Colors.highlightYellow
+                , hoverColor = Colors.highlightYellow
+                , hoverHighlightColor = Colors.highlightYellow
+                , kind = ()
+                , name = Nothing
+                }
+
+        highlightableFromInline : Maybe (Tool.MarkerModel ()) -> (String -> String) -> Markdown.Inline.Inline i -> List (Highlightable ())
+        highlightableFromInline maybeMark mapStrings inline =
+            case inline of
+                Markdown.Inline.Text text_ ->
+                    [ static maybeMark mapStrings text_ ]
+
+                Markdown.Inline.HardLineBreak ->
+                    [ static maybeMark mapStrings "\n" ]
+
+                Markdown.Inline.CodeInline text_ ->
+                    [ static maybeMark mapStrings text_ ]
+
+                Markdown.Inline.Link "" maybeTitle inlines ->
+                    -- empty links should be interpreted as content that's supposed to be highlighted!
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline (Just defaultMark) mapStrings) inlines
+
+                Markdown.Inline.Link url maybeTitle inlines ->
+                    let
+                        lastIndex =
+                            List.length inlines - 1
+
+                        addLinkOpening i str =
+                            if i == 0 then
+                                "[" ++ str
+
+                            else
+                                str
+
+                        addLinkClosing i str =
+                            if i == lastIndex then
+                                str ++ "](" ++ url ++ ")"
+
+                            else
+                                str
+                    in
+                    List.indexedMap
+                        (\i ->
+                            highlightableFromInline maybeMark
+                                (mapStrings >> addLinkOpening i >> addLinkClosing i)
+                        )
+                        inlines
+                        |> List.concat
+
+                Markdown.Inline.Image _ _ inlines ->
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline maybeMark mapStrings) inlines
+
+                Markdown.Inline.HtmlInline _ _ inlines ->
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline maybeMark mapStrings) inlines
+
+                Markdown.Inline.Emphasis level inlines ->
+                    let
+                        marker =
+                            String.repeat level "*"
+
+                        addMarkers str =
+                            marker ++ str ++ marker
+                    in
+                    List.concatMap
+                        (highlightableFromInline maybeMark (mapStrings >> addMarkers))
+                        inlines
+
+                Markdown.Inline.Custom _ inlines ->
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline maybeMark mapStrings) inlines
+
+        highlightableFromBlock : Markdown.Block.Block b i -> List (Highlightable ())
+        highlightableFromBlock block =
+            case block of
+                Markdown.Block.BlankLine text_ ->
+                    [ static Nothing identity text_ ]
+
+                Markdown.Block.ThematicBreak ->
+                    []
+
+                Markdown.Block.Heading _ _ inlines ->
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline Nothing identity) inlines
+
+                Markdown.Block.CodeBlock _ text_ ->
+                    [ static Nothing identity text_ ]
+
+                Markdown.Block.Paragraph _ inlines ->
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline Nothing identity) inlines
+
+                Markdown.Block.BlockQuote blocks ->
+                    List.concatMap highlightableFromBlock blocks
+
+                Markdown.Block.List _ listOfBlocks ->
+                    List.concatMap (List.concatMap highlightableFromBlock) listOfBlocks
+
+                Markdown.Block.PlainInlines inlines ->
+                    List.concatMap (highlightableFromInline Nothing identity) inlines
+
+                Markdown.Block.Custom _ blocks ->
+                    List.concatMap highlightableFromBlock blocks
+    in
+    if String.isEmpty markdownString then
+        []
+
+    else
+        Markdown.Block.parse Nothing markdownString
+            |> List.concatMap highlightableFromBlock
+            |> List.foldr
+                -- ensure that adjacent highlights are in a single mark element
+                (\segment ( lastInteractiveHighlight, acc ) ->
+                    ( segment.marked
+                    , case acc of
+                        last :: remainder ->
+                            if segment.marked == last.marked then
+                                { segment | text = segment.text ++ last.text }
+                                    :: remainder
+
+                            else
+                                segment :: acc
+
+                        _ ->
+                            segment :: acc
+                    )
+                )
+                ( Nothing, [] )
+            |> Tuple.second
+
+
+{-| -}
+hover : Highlightable marker -> Highlightable marker
+hover highlightable =
+    case highlightable.uiState of
+        Hinted ->
+            highlightable
+
+        _ ->
+            { highlightable | uiState = Hovered }
+
+
+{-| -}
+blur : Highlightable marker -> Highlightable marker
+blur highlightable =
+    case highlightable.uiState of
+        Hinted ->
+            highlightable
+
+        _ ->
+            { highlightable | uiState = None }
+
+
+{-| -}
+hint : Highlightable marker -> Highlightable marker
+hint highlightable =
+    { highlightable | uiState = Hinted }
+
+
+{-| -}
+clearHint : Highlightable marker -> Highlightable marker
+clearHint highlightable =
+    { highlightable | uiState = None }
+
+
+{-| -}
+set : Maybe (Tool.MarkerModel marker) -> Highlightable marker -> Highlightable marker
+set marked highlightable =
+    { highlightable | marked = marked }
+
+
+{-| -}
+toggle : Tool.MarkerModel marker -> Highlightable marker -> Highlightable marker
+toggle marker_ highlightable =
+    { highlightable
+        | marked =
+            case highlightable.marked of
+                Just oldMarker ->
+                    if oldMarker /= marker_ then
+                        Just marker_
+
+                    else
+                        Nothing
+
+                Nothing ->
+                    Just marker_
+    }
+
+
+{-| Split a highlightable into one highlightable per word.
+-}
+splitHighlightableOnWords : Highlightable marker -> List (Highlightable marker)
+splitHighlightableOnWords highlightable =
+    highlightable.text
+        |> splitWords
+        |> List.map (\chunk -> { highlightable | text = chunk })
+
+
+{-| Create list of words intersperse with spaces.
+-}
+splitWords : String -> List String
+splitWords string =
+    string
+        |> String.split " "
+        |> List.intersperse " "
+
+
+{-| Get unique markers that have been used.
+-}
+usedMarkers : Sorter marker -> List (Highlightable marker) -> Sort.Set.Set marker
+usedMarkers sorter highlightables =
+    highlightables
+        |> List.filterMap
+            (\highlightable ->
+                if String.Extra.isBlank highlightable.text then
+                    Nothing
+
+                else
+                    highlightable.marked
+                        |> Maybe.map .kind
+            )
+        |> Sort.Set.fromList sorter
+
+
+{-| Get a list of fragment texts and whether or not they are marked.
+Useful for encoding answers.
+-}
+asFragmentTuples : List (Highlightable marker) -> List ( Maybe marker, String )
+asFragmentTuples highlightables =
+    highlightables
+        |> List.Extra.groupWhile (\a b -> a.groupIndex == b.groupIndex)
+        |> List.map
+            (\( first, rest ) ->
+                ( first.marked
+                    |> Maybe.map .kind
+                , text (first :: rest)
+                )
+            )
+
+
+{-| Fetch the text from a series of highlightables.
+-}
+text : List (Highlightable marker) -> String
+text highlightables =
+    List.map .text highlightables
+        |> String.concat
diff --git a/src/Nri/Ui/Highlighter/V3.elm b/src/Nri/Ui/Highlighter/V3.elm
index 8c684159..bd59ab2d 100644
--- a/src/Nri/Ui/Highlighter/V3.elm
+++ b/src/Nri/Ui/Highlighter/V3.elm
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ import Json.Decode
 import List.Extra
 import Markdown.Block
 import Markdown.Inline
-import Nri.Ui.Highlightable.V1 as Highlightable exposing (Highlightable)
+import Nri.Ui.Highlightable.V2 as Highlightable exposing (Highlightable)
 import Nri.Ui.HighlighterTool.V1 as Tool
 import Nri.Ui.Html.Attributes.V2 as AttributesExtra
 import Nri.Ui.Mark.V2 as Mark