diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/apicoll.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/apicoll.cpp
index f0d5f7f725..d82a32d7c2 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/apicoll.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/apicoll.cpp
@@ -2124,7 +2124,7 @@ void CollationAPITest::TestNULLCharTailoring()
     UChar buf[256] = {0};
     int32_t len = u_unescape("&a < '\\u0000'", buf, 256);
     UnicodeString first((UChar)0x0061);
-    UnicodeString second(UChar)0);
+    UnicodeString second((UChar)0);
     RuleBasedCollator *coll = new RuleBasedCollator(UnicodeString(buf, len), status);
     if(U_FAILURE(status)) {
         errln("Failed to open collator");