diff --git a/man2/stat.2 b/man2/stat.2
index 4654e2ae9..e79ac14c8 100644
--- a/man2/stat.2
+++ b/man2/stat.2
@@ -428,7 +428,7 @@ field; instead the field is returned with the value 0.
 .SS Underlying kernel interface
 Over time, increases in the size of the
 .I stat
-structure have led to three successive implementations of
+structure have led to three successive versions of
 .BR stat ():
 .IR sys_stat ()
 (slot
@@ -441,14 +441,11 @@ and
 (new in kernel 2.4; slot
 .IR __NR_stat64 ).
 The last of these is the most current,
-but the other interfaces must be maintained so that the
-behavior of old binaries does not change.
+but the other interfaces must be maintained for the benefit of old binaries.
 The glibc
 .BR stat ()
 wrapper function hides these details from applications,
-ensuring that new applications linked against
-the current library automatically use the current implementation,
-and that binary compatibility is not broken for older binaries.
+invoking the most recent version of the system call provided by the kernel.
 Similar remarks apply for
 .BR fstat (2)
 and