diff --git a/src/string/trimStart.spec.ts b/src/string/trimStart.spec.ts
index df5eca675..ff7a3ae08 100644
--- a/src/string/trimStart.spec.ts
+++ b/src/string/trimStart.spec.ts
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ describe('trimStart', () => {
     expect(trimStart('  hello world  ')).toEqual('hello world  ');
   });
 
+  it('should throw an error when chars is a multi-character string', () => {
+    expect(() => trimStart('---hello', '--')).toThrow();
+  });
+
   it('should remove leading characters when chars is an array', () => {
     expect(trimStart('---hello', ['-', 'h'])).toEqual('ello');
   });
diff --git a/src/string/trimStart.ts b/src/string/trimStart.ts
index f25da8e26..35ba4cb17 100644
--- a/src/string/trimStart.ts
+++ b/src/string/trimStart.ts
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@ export function trimStart(str: string, chars?: string | string[]): string {
 
   switch (typeof chars) {
     case 'string': {
+      if (chars.length !== 1) {
+        throw new Error(`The 'chars' parameter should be a single character string.`);
+      }
+
       while (startIndex < str.length && str[startIndex] === chars) {
         startIndex++;
       }