diff --git a/doc/lispref/display.texi b/doc/lispref/display.texi
index 717171c6972..c3468abbb4b 100644
--- a/doc/lispref/display.texi
+++ b/doc/lispref/display.texi
@@ -2282,8 +2282,8 @@ Draw a box with lines of width 1, in color @var{color}.
 This way you can explicitly specify all aspects of the box.  The value
 @var{width} specifies the width of the lines to draw; it defaults to
 1.  A negative width @var{-n} means to draw a line of width @var{n}
-that occupies the space of the underlying text, thus avoiding any
-increase in the character height or width.
+whose top and bottom parts occupy the space of the underlying text,
+thus avoiding any increase in the character height.
 
 The value @var{color} specifies the color to draw with.  The default is
 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background