diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 30114cab2fd..85ef6e4ba38 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -2852,8 +2852,9 @@ customize them.
 
 +++
 ** New function 'syntax-class-to-char'.
-This does the almost the opposite of 'string-to-syntax' -- it returns
-the syntax descriptor (a character) given a raw syntax descriptor.
+This does almost the opposite of 'string-to-syntax' -- it returns the
+syntax descriptor (a character) given a raw syntax descriptor (an
+integer).
 
 +++
 ** New function 'buffer-local-boundp'.