diff --git a/man2/getpriority.2 b/man2/getpriority.2
index 8f9754ffd..4a1ff91a9 100644
--- a/man2/getpriority.2
+++ b/man2/getpriority.2
@@ -118,7 +118,13 @@ soft limit; see
 .BR getrlimit (2)
 for details.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
-Since
+On success,
+.BR getpriority ()
+returns the calling thread's nice value, which may be a negative number.
+On error, it returns \-1 and sets
+.I errno
+to indicate the cause of the error.
+Since a successful call to
 .BR getpriority ()
 can legitimately return the value \-1, it is necessary
 to clear the external variable