diff --git a/textproc/py-wordcloud/Makefile b/textproc/py-wordcloud/Makefile
index 3a5b953700b0..40d188967158 100644
--- a/textproc/py-wordcloud/Makefile
+++ b/textproc/py-wordcloud/Makefile
@@ -1,33 +1,32 @@
 PORTNAME=	wordcloud
-DISTVERSION=	1.9.4
-PORTREVISION=	4
+DISTVERSION=	1.9.6
 CATEGORIES=	textproc python
 MASTER_SITES=	PYPI
 PKGNAMEPREFIX=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}
 
 MAINTAINER=	thierry@FreeBSD.org
 COMMENT=	Little word cloud generator in Python
 WWW=		https://amueller.github.io/word_cloud/
 
 LICENSE=	MIT
 
-BUILD_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}numpy>=1.16:math/py-numpy@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
+BUILD_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}numpy>=0:math/py-numpy@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
 		${PY_PILLOW}	\
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}wheel>0:devel/py-wheel@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}matplotlib>0:math/py-matplotlib@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}setuptools-scm>0:devel/py-setuptools-scm@${PY_FLAVOR}
-RUN_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}numpy>=1.16:math/py-numpy@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
+RUN_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}numpy>=0:math/py-numpy@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
 		${PY_PILLOW}	\
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}matplotlib>0:math/py-matplotlib@${PY_FLAVOR}	\
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}setuptools>0:devel/py-setuptools@${PY_FLAVOR}
 
 USES=		python
 USE_PYTHON=	cython pep517
 
 PLIST_SUB+=	VER=${PORTVERSION}
 
 .if !defined(WITH_DEBUG)
 LDFLAGS+=	-s
 .endif
 
 .include <bsd.port.mk>
diff --git a/textproc/py-wordcloud/distinfo b/textproc/py-wordcloud/distinfo
index 7845f51c6db4..7ca92dea971a 100644
--- a/textproc/py-wordcloud/distinfo
+++ b/textproc/py-wordcloud/distinfo
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-TIMESTAMP = 1735902817
-SHA256 (wordcloud-1.9.4.tar.gz) = b273d8a5ded97d3ead904046b49464dcb71119ee79df875072a4c105cadd347a
-SIZE (wordcloud-1.9.4.tar.gz) = 27563753
+TIMESTAMP = 1779098026
+SHA256 (wordcloud-1.9.6.tar.gz) = df17c468ff903bd0aba4f87c6540745d13a4931220dd4937cb363ad85a4771b9
+SIZE (wordcloud-1.9.6.tar.gz) = 27563741
diff --git a/textproc/py-wordcloud/files/patch-pyproject.toml b/textproc/py-wordcloud/files/patch-pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..660de6ee77f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/textproc/py-wordcloud/files/patch-pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+--- pyproject.toml.orig	2026-01-22 01:57:45 UTC
++++ pyproject.toml
+@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ requires-python = ">=3.9"
+ description = "A little word cloud generator"
+ readme = { file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown" }
+ requires-python = ">=3.9"
+-license = "MIT"
++license = {text = "MIT"}
+ dependencies = ["numpy>=1.19.3", "pillow", "matplotlib"]
+ dynamic = ["version"]
+