diff --git a/src/runtime/mfinal.go b/src/runtime/mfinal.go
index 6ce0312712..a8c51e3e02 100644
--- a/src/runtime/mfinal.go
+++ b/src/runtime/mfinal.go
@@ -267,8 +267,8 @@ func runfinq() {
 // is not guaranteed to run, because there is no ordering that
 // respects the dependencies.
 //
-// The finalizer for obj is scheduled to run at some arbitrary time after
-// obj becomes unreachable.
+// The finalizer is scheduled to run at some arbitrary time after the
+// program can no longer reach the object to which obj points.
 // There is no guarantee that finalizers will run before a program exits,
 // so typically they are useful only for releasing non-memory resources
 // associated with an object during a long-running program.