diff --git a/man/hostnamectl.xml b/man/hostnamectl.xml
index b1f038156d..60004e9d04 100644
--- a/man/hostnamectl.xml
+++ b/man/hostnamectl.xml
@@ -66,10 +66,10 @@
     high-level "pretty" hostname which might include all kinds of
     special characters (e.g. "Lennart's Laptop"), the static hostname
     which is used to initialize the kernel hostname at boot (e.g.
-    "lennarts-laptop"), and the transient hostname which is a default
-    received from network configuration. If a static hostname is set,
-    and is valid (something other than localhost), then the transient
-    hostname is not used.</para>
+    "lennarts-laptop"), and the transient hostname which is a fallback
+    value received from network configuration. If a static hostname is
+    set, and is valid (something other than localhost), then the
+    transient hostname is not used.</para>
 
     <para>Note that the pretty hostname has little restrictions on the
     characters used, while the static and transient hostnames are