diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util/helpers.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util/helpers.go
index 00d6ac98fb1..2e009894f8d 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util/helpers.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util/helpers.go
@@ -407,6 +407,8 @@ func AddValidateFlags(cmd *cobra.Command) {
 		"warn" will warn about unknown or duplicate fields without blocking the request if server-side field validation is enabled on the API server, and behave as "ignore" otherwise.
 		"false" or "ignore" will not perform any schema validation, silently dropping any unknown or duplicate fields.`,
 	)
+
+	cmd.Flags().Lookup("validate").NoOptDefVal = "strict"
 }
 
 func AddFilenameOptionFlags(cmd *cobra.Command, options *resource.FilenameOptions, usage string) {
@@ -584,6 +586,8 @@ func GetValidationDirective(cmd *cobra.Command) (string, error) {
 	b, err := strconv.ParseBool(validateFlag)
 	if err != nil {
 		switch validateFlag {
+		case "":
+			return metav1.FieldValidationStrict, nil
 		case cmd.Flag("validate").NoOptDefVal:
 			return metav1.FieldValidationStrict, nil
 		case "strict":
diff --git a/test/cmd/create.sh b/test/cmd/create.sh
index 77cfe25fea9..16ae3412f3a 100755
--- a/test/cmd/create.sh
+++ b/test/cmd/create.sh
@@ -170,6 +170,12 @@ run_kubectl_create_validate_tests() {
 
   create_and_use_new_namespace
 
+   ## test --validate no value expects default strict is used
+   kube::log::status "Testing kubectl create --validate"
+   # create and verify
+   output_message=$(! kubectl create -f hack/testdata/invalid-deployment-unknown-and-duplicate-fields.yaml --validate 2>&1)
+   has_one_of_error_message "${output_message}" 'strict decoding error' 'error validating data'
+
   ## test --validate=true
   kube::log::status "Testing kubectl create --validate=true"
   # create and verify