diff --git a/src/uu/printf/printf.md b/src/uu/printf/printf.md
index ae6f36280..0151e14c0 100644
--- a/src/uu/printf/printf.md
+++ b/src/uu/printf/printf.md
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ Fields
 * `%e` or `%E`: scientific notation floating point value
 * `%g` or `%G`: shorter of specially interpreted decimal or SciNote floating point value.
             second parameter is
-              -max places after decimal point for floating point output
+              `-max` places after decimal point for floating point output
               -max number of significant digits for scientific notation output
 
 parameterizing fields