diff --git a/man2/pidfd_open.2 b/man2/pidfd_open.2
index 6c80aec2f..fb025ad49 100644
--- a/man2/pidfd_open.2
+++ b/man2/pidfd_open.2
@@ -161,7 +161,8 @@ on the file descriptor fails with the error
 .PP
 The
 .BR pidfd_open ()
-system call is the preferred way of obtaining a PID file descriptor.
+system call is the preferred way of obtaining a PID file descriptor
+for an already existing process.
 The alternative is to obtain a file descriptor by opening a
 .I /proc/[pid]
 directory.