diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 89e8eb1645d..fea533d0d20 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -1638,7 +1638,7 @@ highlight the fill-column indicators.  By default this is disabled.
 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 31.1
 
 ** New major mode 'conf-npmrc-mode'.
-A major mode based on conf-mode purposed for editing ".npmrc" files.
+A major mode based on 'conf-mode' for editing ".npmrc" files.
 
 ** New major modes based on the tree-sitter library
 
diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index 9c98adf84c2..3ce5d6264dc 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -3207,7 +3207,8 @@ ARC\\|ZIP\\|LZH\\|LHA\\|ZOO\\|[JEW]AR\\|XPI\\|RAR\\|CBR\\|7Z\\|SQUASHFS\\)\\'" .
     ("\\.properties\\(?:\\.[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+\\)?\\'" . conf-javaprop-mode)
     ("\\.toml\\'" . conf-toml-mode)
     ("\\.desktop\\'" . conf-desktop-mode)
-    ;; Dot is excluded from npmrc, because global configs may lack it.
+    ;; Dot is excluded from npmrc, because global configs may lack it,
+    ;; e.g. in /etc/npmrc files.
     ("npmrc\\'" . conf-npmrc-mode)
     ("/\\.redshift\\.conf\\'" . conf-windows-mode)
     ("\\`/etc/\\(?:DIR_COLORS\\|ethers\\|.?fstab\\|.*hosts\\|lesskey\\|login\\.?de\\(?:fs\\|vperm\\)\\|magic\\|mtab\\|pam\\.d/.*\\|permissions\\(?:\\.d/.+\\)?\\|protocols\\|rpc\\|services\\)\\'" . conf-space-mode)