diff --git a/tools/pybind11Common.cmake b/tools/pybind11Common.cmake
index bbb722ac7..e1fb601ac 100644
--- a/tools/pybind11Common.cmake
+++ b/tools/pybind11Common.cmake
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ if(MSVC) # That's also clang-cl
   set_property(
     TARGET pybind11::windows_extras
     APPEND
-    PROPERTY INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS /bigobj)
+    PROPERTY INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS $<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:/bigobj>)
 
   # /MP enables multithreaded builds (relevant when there are many files) for MSVC
   if("${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID}" STREQUAL "MSVC") # no Clang no Intel