diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 20c7e65e..386bc1d3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 * Fix `clojure-align` when called from `clojure-ts-mode` major mode buffers.
 * [#671](https://github.com/clojure-emacs/clojure-mode/issues/671): Syntax highlighting for digits after the first in `%` args. (e.g. `%10`)
+- [#680](https://github.com/clojure-emacs/clojure-mode/issues/680): Change syntax class of ASCII control characters to punctuation, fixing situations where carriage returns were being interpreted as symbols
 
 # Changes
 
diff --git a/clojure-mode.el b/clojure-mode.el
index 7031c625..c5b9e801 100644
--- a/clojure-mode.el
+++ b/clojure-mode.el
@@ -373,7 +373,8 @@ The prefixes are used to generate the correct namespace."
 (defvar clojure-mode-syntax-table
   (let ((table (make-syntax-table)))
     ;; Initialize ASCII charset as symbol syntax
-    (modify-syntax-entry '(0 . 127) "_" table)
+    ;; Control characters from 0-31 default to the punctuation syntax class
+    (modify-syntax-entry '(32 . 127) "_" table)
 
     ;; Word syntax
     (modify-syntax-entry '(?0 . ?9) "w" table)
@@ -385,6 +386,7 @@ The prefixes are used to generate the correct namespace."
     (modify-syntax-entry ?\xa0 " " table) ; non-breaking space
     (modify-syntax-entry ?\t " " table)
     (modify-syntax-entry ?\f " " table)
+    (modify-syntax-entry ?\r " " table)
     ;; Setting commas as whitespace makes functions like `delete-trailing-whitespace' behave unexpectedly (#561)
     (modify-syntax-entry ?, "." table)
 
diff --git a/test/clojure-mode-util-test.el b/test/clojure-mode-util-test.el
index 6157a3d0..78a2ac17 100644
--- a/test/clojure-mode-util-test.el
+++ b/test/clojure-mode-util-test.el
@@ -163,6 +163,11 @@
     (with-clojure-buffer "(ns)(ns foo)"
       (expect (clojure-find-ns) :to-equal "foo"))
     (with-clojure-buffer "(ns )(ns foo)"
+      (expect (clojure-find-ns) :to-equal "foo")))
+  (it "should ignore carriage returns"
+    (with-clojure-buffer "(ns \r\n  foo)"
+      (expect (clojure-find-ns) :to-equal "foo"))
+    (with-clojure-buffer "(ns\r\n ^{:doc \"meta\r\n\"}\r\n  foo\r\n)"
       (expect (clojure-find-ns) :to-equal "foo"))))
 
 (describe "clojure-sort-ns"