diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index dac59175b..87efb1502 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ ignore_names = ["change_to_ex_proj_dir", "init_example_project"]
 [tool.semantic_release]
 logging_use_named_masks = true
 commit_parser = "angular"
-commit_parser_options = { parse_squash_commits = true }
+commit_parser_options = { parse_squash_commits = true, ignore_merge_commits = true }
 build_command = """
     python -m pip install -e .[build]
     python -m build .
diff --git a/src/semantic_release/changelog/release_history.py b/src/semantic_release/changelog/release_history.py
index f9e90221e..887fa5492 100644
--- a/src/semantic_release/changelog/release_history.py
+++ b/src/semantic_release/changelog/release_history.py
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ def from_git_history(
             for tag, version in all_git_tags_and_versions
         }
 
+        ignore_merge_commits = bool(
+            hasattr(commit_parser, "options")
+            and hasattr(commit_parser.options, "ignore_merge_commits")
+            and getattr(commit_parser.options, "ignore_merge_commits")  # noqa: B009
+        )
+
         # Strategy:
         # Loop through commits in history, parsing as we go.
         # Add these commits to `unreleased` as a key-value mapping
@@ -159,6 +165,10 @@ def from_git_history(
                     else parsed_result.bump
                 )
 
+                if ignore_merge_commits and parsed_result.is_merge_commit():
+                    log.info("Excluding merge commit[%s]", parsed_result.short_hash)
+                    continue
+
                 # Skip excluded commits except for any commit causing a version bump
                 # Reasoning: if a commit causes a version bump, and no other commits
                 # are included, then the changelog will be empty. Even if ther was other
diff --git a/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/angular.py b/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/angular.py
index 511d73a38..80f76571a 100644
--- a/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/angular.py
+++ b/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/angular.py
@@ -101,6 +101,10 @@ class AngularParserOptions(ParserOptions):
     parse_squash_commits: bool = False
     """Toggle flag for whether or not to parse squash commits"""
 
+    # TODO: breaking change v10, change default to True
+    ignore_merge_commits: bool = False
+    """Toggle flag for whether or not to ignore merge commits"""
+
     @property
     def tag_to_level(self) -> dict[str, LevelBump]:
         """A mapping of commit tags to the level bump they should result in."""
@@ -315,6 +319,10 @@ def parse_message(self, message: str) -> ParsedMessageResult | None:
             linked_merge_request=linked_merge_request,
         )
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def is_merge_commit(commit: Commit) -> bool:
+        return len(commit.parents) > 1
+
     def parse_commit(self, commit: Commit) -> ParseResult:
         if not (parsed_msg_result := self.parse_message(force_str(commit.message))):
             return _logged_parse_error(
@@ -336,6 +344,11 @@ def parse(self, commit: Commit) -> ParseResult | list[ParseResult]:
         multiple commits, each of which will be parsed separately. Single commits
         will be returned as a list of a single ParseResult.
         """
+        if self.options.ignore_merge_commits and self.is_merge_commit(commit):
+            return _logged_parse_error(
+                commit, "Ignoring merge commit: %s" % commit.hexsha[:8]
+            )
+
         separate_commits: list[Commit] = (
             self.unsquash_commit(commit)
             if self.options.parse_squash_commits
diff --git a/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/emoji.py b/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/emoji.py
index 5b8479f18..fa0ad2304 100644
--- a/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/emoji.py
+++ b/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/emoji.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 from semantic_release.commit_parser.token import (
     ParsedCommit,
     ParsedMessageResult,
+    ParseError,
     ParseResult,
 )
 from semantic_release.commit_parser.util import (
@@ -97,6 +98,10 @@ class EmojiParserOptions(ParserOptions):
     parse_squash_commits: bool = False
     """Toggle flag for whether or not to parse squash commits"""
 
+    # TODO: breaking change v10, change default to True
+    ignore_merge_commits: bool = False
+    """Toggle flag for whether or not to ignore merge commits"""
+
     @property
     def tag_to_level(self) -> dict[str, LevelBump]:
         """A mapping of commit tags to the level bump they should result in."""
@@ -304,6 +309,10 @@ def parse_message(self, message: str) -> ParsedMessageResult:
             linked_merge_request=linked_merge_request,
         )
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def is_merge_commit(commit: Commit) -> bool:
+        return len(commit.parents) > 1
+
     def parse_commit(self, commit: Commit) -> ParseResult:
         return ParsedCommit.from_parsed_message_result(
             commit, self.parse_message(force_str(commit.message))
@@ -317,6 +326,11 @@ def parse(self, commit: Commit) -> ParseResult | list[ParseResult]:
         multiple commits, each of which will be parsed separately. Single commits
         will be returned as a list of a single ParseResult.
         """
+        if self.options.ignore_merge_commits and self.is_merge_commit(commit):
+            err_msg = "Ignoring merge commit: %s" % commit.hexsha[:8]
+            logger.debug(err_msg)
+            return ParseError(commit, err_msg)
+
         separate_commits: list[Commit] = (
             self.unsquash_commit(commit)
             if self.options.parse_squash_commits
diff --git a/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/token.py b/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/token.py
index c100bad84..dae8d6f59 100644
--- a/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/token.py
+++ b/src/semantic_release/commit_parser/token.py
@@ -131,6 +131,9 @@ def linked_pull_request(self) -> str:
         """An alias to the linked_merge_request attribute."""
         return self.linked_merge_request
 
+    def is_merge_commit(self) -> bool:
+        return bool(len(self.commit.parents) > 1)
+
     @staticmethod
     def from_parsed_message_result(
         commit: Commit, parsed_message_result: ParsedMessageResult
@@ -185,6 +188,9 @@ def short_hash(self) -> str:
         """A short representation of the hash value (in hex) of the commit."""
         return self.hexsha[:7]
 
+    def is_merge_commit(self) -> bool:
+        return bool(len(self.commit.parents) > 1)
+
     def raise_error(self) -> NoReturn:
         """A convience method to raise a CommitParseError with the error message."""
         raise CommitParseError(self.error)
diff --git a/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/md/.components/changes.md.j2 b/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/md/.components/changes.md.j2
index fe1069447..2bade3b74 100644
--- a/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/md/.components/changes.md.j2
+++ b/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/md/.components/changes.md.j2
@@ -51,11 +51,13 @@ EXAMPLE:
 }}{%    endfor
 %}{#
    #    # PRINT SECTION (header & commits)
-#}{{    "\n"
-}}{{    "### %s\n" | format(type_ | title)
-}}{{    "\n"
-}}{{    "%s\n" | format(commit_descriptions | unique | join("\n\n"))
-}}{%  endfor
+#}{%    if commit_descriptions | length > 0
+%}{{      "\n"
+}}{{      "### %s\n" | format(type_ | title)
+}}{{      "\n"
+}}{{      "%s\n" | format(commit_descriptions | unique | join("\n\n"))
+}}{%    endif
+%}{%  endfor
 %}{#
       # Determine if there are any breaking change commits by filtering the list by breaking descriptions
       # commit_objects is a list of tuples [("Features", [ParsedCommit(), ...]), ("Bug Fixes", [ParsedCommit(), ...])]
diff --git a/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/rst/.components/changes.rst.j2 b/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/rst/.components/changes.rst.j2
index d064838f6..07d6729d3 100644
--- a/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/rst/.components/changes.rst.j2
+++ b/src/semantic_release/data/templates/angular/rst/.components/changes.rst.j2
@@ -78,13 +78,14 @@ BREAKING CHANGES
 }}{%    endfor
 %}{#
    #    # PRINT SECTION (Header & Commits)
-#}{{    "\n"
-}}{{    section_header ~ "\n"
-}}{{    generate_heading_underline(section_header, '-') ~ "\n"
-}}{{
-        "\n%s\n" | format(commit_descriptions | unique | join("\n\n"))
-
-}}{%  endfor
+#}{%    if commit_descriptions | length > 0
+%}{{      "\n"
+}}{{      section_header ~ "\n"
+}}{{      generate_heading_underline(section_header, '-')
+}}{{      "\n"
+}}{{      "\n%s\n" | format(commit_descriptions | unique | join("\n\n"))
+}}{%    endif
+%}{%  endfor
 %}{#
       # Determine if there are any breaking change commits by filtering the list by breaking descriptions
       # commit_objects is a list of tuples [("Features", [ParsedCommit(), ...]), ("Bug Fixes", [ParsedCommit(), ...])]
diff --git a/tests/e2e/cmd_changelog/test_changelog_parsing.py b/tests/e2e/cmd_changelog/test_changelog_parsing.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3f8dc052a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/e2e/cmd_changelog/test_changelog_parsing.py
@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+import shutil
+from pathlib import Path
+from re import MULTILINE, compile as regexp
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
+import pytest
+from pytest_lazy_fixtures.lazy_fixture import lf as lazy_fixture
+
+from semantic_release.changelog.context import ChangelogMode
+from semantic_release.cli.commands.main import main
+from semantic_release.cli.const import JINJA2_EXTENSION
+
+from tests.const import CHANGELOG_SUBCMD, MAIN_PROG_NAME
+from tests.fixtures.example_project import (
+    default_changelog_md_template,
+    default_changelog_rst_template,
+    default_md_changelog_insertion_flag,
+    default_rst_changelog_insertion_flag,
+    example_changelog_md,
+    example_changelog_rst,
+)
+from tests.fixtures.repos.git_flow import (
+    repo_w_git_flow_angular_commits,
+    repo_w_git_flow_scipy_commits,
+)
+from tests.util import assert_successful_exit_code
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from click.testing import CliRunner
+
+    from tests.fixtures.example_project import UpdatePyprojectTomlFn
+    from tests.fixtures.git_repo import BuiltRepoResult
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "changelog_file, insertion_flag, default_changelog_template, changes_tpl_file",
+    [
+        (
+            # ChangelogOutputFormat.MARKDOWN
+            lazy_fixture(example_changelog_md.__name__),
+            lazy_fixture(default_md_changelog_insertion_flag.__name__),
+            lazy_fixture(default_changelog_md_template.__name__),
+            Path(".components", "changes.md.j2"),
+        ),
+        (
+            # ChangelogOutputFormat.RESTRUCTURED_TEXT
+            lazy_fixture(example_changelog_rst.__name__),
+            lazy_fixture(default_rst_changelog_insertion_flag.__name__),
+            lazy_fixture(default_changelog_rst_template.__name__),
+            Path(".components", "changes.rst.j2"),
+        ),
+    ],
+)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "repo_result",
+    [
+        pytest.param(
+            lazy_fixture(repo_fixture_name),
+            marks=pytest.mark.comprehensive,
+        )
+        for repo_fixture_name in [
+            repo_w_git_flow_angular_commits.__name__,
+            repo_w_git_flow_scipy_commits.__name__,
+        ]
+    ],
+)
+def test_changelog_parsing_ignore_merge_commits(
+    cli_runner: CliRunner,
+    repo_result: BuiltRepoResult,
+    update_pyproject_toml: UpdatePyprojectTomlFn,
+    example_project_template_dir: Path,
+    changelog_file: Path,
+    insertion_flag: str,
+    default_changelog_template: Path,
+    changes_tpl_file: Path,
+):
+    repo = repo_result["repo"]
+    expected_changelog_content = changelog_file.read_text()
+
+    update_pyproject_toml(
+        "tool.semantic_release.commit_parser_options.ignore_merge_commits", True
+    )
+    update_pyproject_toml(
+        "tool.semantic_release.changelog.mode", ChangelogMode.UPDATE.value
+    )
+    update_pyproject_toml(
+        "tool.semantic_release.changelog.insertion_flag",
+        insertion_flag,
+    )
+    update_pyproject_toml(
+        "tool.semantic_release.changelog.template_dir",
+        str(example_project_template_dir.relative_to(repo.working_dir)),
+    )
+    update_pyproject_toml(
+        "tool.semantic_release.changelog.exclude_commit_patterns",
+        [
+            r"""Initial Commit.*""",
+        ],
+    )
+
+    # Force custom changelog to be a copy of the default changelog
+    shutil.copytree(
+        src=default_changelog_template.parent,
+        dst=example_project_template_dir,
+        dirs_exist_ok=True,
+    )
+
+    # Remove the "unknown" filter from the changelog template to enable Merge commits
+    patch = regexp(
+        r'^(#}{% *for type_, commits in commit_objects) if type_ != "unknown"',
+        MULTILINE,
+    )
+    changes_file = example_project_template_dir.joinpath(changes_tpl_file)
+    changes_file.write_text(patch.sub(r"\1", changes_file.read_text()))
+
+    # Make sure the prev_changelog_file is the same as the current changelog
+    changelog_tpl_file = example_project_template_dir.joinpath(
+        changelog_file.name
+    ).with_suffix(str.join("", [changelog_file.suffix, JINJA2_EXTENSION]))
+    changelog_tpl_file.write_text(
+        regexp(r"= ctx.prev_changelog_file").sub(
+            rf'= "{changelog_file.name}"', changelog_tpl_file.read_text()
+        )
+    )
+
+    # Remove the changelog to force re-generation with new configurations
+    os.remove(str(changelog_file.resolve()))
+
+    # Act
+    cli_cmd = [MAIN_PROG_NAME, CHANGELOG_SUBCMD]
+    result = cli_runner.invoke(main, cli_cmd[1:])
+
+    # Evaluate
+    assert_successful_exit_code(result, cli_cmd)
+    assert expected_changelog_content == changelog_file.read_text()
diff --git a/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_angular.py b/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_angular.py
index 1ce75734a..5fc69feb1 100644
--- a/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_angular.py
+++ b/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_angular.py
@@ -1129,3 +1129,31 @@ def test_parser_custom_patch_tags(make_commit_obj: MakeCommitObjFn):
     result = next(iter(parsed_results))
     assert isinstance(result, ParsedCommit)
     assert result.bump is LevelBump.PATCH
+
+
+def test_parser_ignore_merge_commit(
+    default_angular_parser: AngularCommitParser,
+    make_commit_obj: MakeCommitObjFn,
+):
+    # Setup: Enable parsing of linked issues
+    parser = AngularCommitParser(
+        options=AngularParserOptions(
+            **{
+                **default_angular_parser.options.__dict__,
+                "ignore_merge_commits": True,
+            }
+        )
+    )
+
+    base_commit = make_commit_obj("Merge branch 'fix/fix-feature' into 'main'")
+    incomming_commit = make_commit_obj("feat: add a new feature")
+
+    # Setup: Create a merge commit
+    merge_commit = make_commit_obj("Merge branch 'feat/add-new-feature' into 'main'")
+    merge_commit.parents = [base_commit, incomming_commit]
+
+    # Action
+    parsed_result = parser.parse(merge_commit)
+
+    assert isinstance(parsed_result, ParseError)
+    assert "Ignoring merge commit" in parsed_result.error
diff --git a/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_emoji.py b/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_emoji.py
index 30c52da41..b5e172c52 100644
--- a/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_emoji.py
+++ b/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_emoji.py
@@ -991,3 +991,31 @@ def test_parser_squashed_commit_github_squash_style(
         assert expected.get("breaking_descriptions", []) == result.breaking_descriptions
         assert expected.get("linked_issues", ()) == result.linked_issues
         assert expected.get("linked_merge_request", "") == result.linked_merge_request
+
+
+def test_parser_ignore_merge_commit(
+    default_emoji_parser: EmojiCommitParser,
+    make_commit_obj: MakeCommitObjFn,
+):
+    # Setup: Enable parsing of linked issues
+    parser = EmojiCommitParser(
+        options=EmojiParserOptions(
+            **{
+                **default_emoji_parser.options.__dict__,
+                "ignore_merge_commits": True,
+            }
+        )
+    )
+
+    base_commit = make_commit_obj("Merge branch 'fix/fix-feature' into 'main'")
+    incomming_commit = make_commit_obj("feat: add a new feature")
+
+    # Setup: Create a merge commit
+    merge_commit = make_commit_obj("Merge branch 'feat/add-new-feature' into 'main'")
+    merge_commit.parents = [base_commit, incomming_commit]
+
+    # Action
+    parsed_result = parser.parse(merge_commit)
+
+    assert isinstance(parsed_result, ParseError)
+    assert "Ignoring merge commit" in parsed_result.error
diff --git a/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_scipy.py b/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_scipy.py
index 8fc64fea4..7682b1c69 100644
--- a/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_scipy.py
+++ b/tests/unit/semantic_release/commit_parser/test_scipy.py
@@ -1029,3 +1029,31 @@ def test_parser_return_linked_issues_from_commit_message(
     result = next(iter(parsed_results))
     assert isinstance(result, ParsedCommit)
     assert tuple(linked_issues) == result.linked_issues
+
+
+def test_parser_ignore_merge_commit(
+    default_scipy_parser: ScipyCommitParser,
+    make_commit_obj: MakeCommitObjFn,
+):
+    # Setup: Enable parsing of linked issues
+    parser = ScipyCommitParser(
+        options=ScipyParserOptions(
+            **{
+                **default_scipy_parser.options.__dict__,
+                "ignore_merge_commits": True,
+            }
+        )
+    )
+
+    base_commit = make_commit_obj("Merge branch 'fix/fix-feature' into 'main'")
+    incomming_commit = make_commit_obj("feat: add a new feature")
+
+    # Setup: Create a merge commit
+    merge_commit = make_commit_obj("Merge branch 'feat/add-new-feature' into 'main'")
+    merge_commit.parents = [base_commit, incomming_commit]
+
+    # Action
+    parsed_result = parser.parse(merge_commit)
+
+    assert isinstance(parsed_result, ParseError)
+    assert "Ignoring merge commit" in parsed_result.error