diff --git a/man3/CPU_SET.3 b/man3/CPU_SET.3
index 7f6200a3b..e63e03bda 100644
--- a/man3/CPU_SET.3
+++ b/man3/CPU_SET.3
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ and similar interfaces.
 
 The
 .I cpu_set_t
-data type is implemented as a bit set.
+data type is implemented as a bit mask.
 However, the data structure treated as considered opaque:
 all manipulation of CPU sets should be done via the macros
 described in this page.
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ These interfaces are Linux-specific.
 To duplicate a CPU set, use
 .BR memcpy (3).
 
-Since CPU sets are bit sets allocated in units of long words,
+Since CPU sets are bit masks allocated in units of long words,
 the actual number of CPUs in a dynamically
 allocated CPU set will be rounded up to the next multiple of
 .IR "sizeof(unsigned long)" .
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ note that the constant
 .B CPU_SETSIZE
 indicates the number of CPUs in the
 .I cpu_set_t
-data type (thus, it is effectively a count of bits in the bit set),
+data type (thus, it is effectively a count of the bits in the bit mask),
 while the
 .I setsize
 argument of the