diff --git a/man3/strlen.3 b/man3/strlen.3
index d81fb39ec..65561a426 100644
--- a/man3/strlen.3
+++ b/man3/strlen.3
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ excluding the terminating null byte (\(aq\\0\(aq).
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 The
 .BR strlen ()
-function returns the number of bytes in the string pointed to by
+function returns the number of characters in the string pointed to by
 .IR s .
 .SH ATTRIBUTES
 For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see