diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-trace.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-trace.txt
index ba03fd5d1a5476ce218e6b5c7d36720a9ec26294..1db9c8b79880e25595a45b32773c46a6b0afaf37 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-trace.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-trace.txt
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ OPTIONS
 
 -e::
 --expr::
-	List of events to show, currently only syscall names.
+	List of syscalls to show, currently only syscall names.
 	Prefixing with ! shows all syscalls but the ones specified.  You may
 	need to escape it.
 
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
index 23fb0818fec95fd43edb7adb04fc153a3144774a..d1139b6bd534e65a33858b8dbe727cefa8ae2e86 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
@@ -2660,8 +2660,7 @@ int cmd_trace(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix __maybe_unused)
 	OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "comm", &trace.show_comm,
 		    "show the thread COMM next to its id"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "tool_stats", &trace.show_tool_stats, "show tool stats"),
-	OPT_STRING('e', "expr", &ev_qualifier_str, "expr",
-		    "list of events to trace"),
+	OPT_STRING('e', "expr", &ev_qualifier_str, "expr", "list of syscalls to trace"),
 	OPT_STRING('o', "output", &output_name, "file", "output file name"),
 	OPT_STRING('i', "input", &input_name, "file", "Analyze events in file"),
 	OPT_STRING('p', "pid", &trace.opts.target.pid, "pid",