diff --git a/man5/locale.5 b/man5/locale.5
index f6b63da9d..9789e0bb0 100644
--- a/man5/locale.5
+++ b/man5/locale.5
@@ -693,12 +693,12 @@ separator.
 followed by the local currency symbol.
 .TP
 .I mon_decimal_point
-followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delimiter
-when formatting monetary quantities.
+followed by the single-character string that will be used as the
+decimal delimiter when formatting monetary quantities.
 .TP
 .I mon_thousands_sep
-followed by the string that will be used as a group separator
-when formatting monetary quantities.
+followed by the single-character string that will be used as a group
+separator when formatting monetary quantities.
 .TP
 .I mon_grouping
 followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that
@@ -962,12 +962,12 @@ in the first column.
 The following keywords are allowed:
 .TP
 .I decimal_point
-followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delimiter
-when formatting numeric quantities.
+followed by the single-character string that will be used as the
+decimal delimiter when formatting numeric quantities.
 .TP
 .I thousands_sep
-followed by the string that will be used as a group separator
-when formatting numeric quantities.
+followed by the single-character string that will be used as a group
+separator when formatting numeric quantities.
 .TP
 .I grouping
 followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons