diff --git a/Documentation/diff-config.txt b/Documentation/diff-config.txt
index 5ca942ab5e..77caa66c2f 100644
--- a/Documentation/diff-config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/diff-config.txt
@@ -112,7 +112,8 @@ diff.orderFile::
 
 diff.renameLimit::
 	The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
-	detection; equivalent to the 'git diff' option `-l`.
+	detection; equivalent to the 'git diff' option `-l`. This setting
+	has no effect if rename detection is turned off.
 
 diff.renames::
 	Whether and how Git detects renames.  If set to "false",
diff --git a/Documentation/merge-config.txt b/Documentation/merge-config.txt
index 12b6bbf591..48ee3bce77 100644
--- a/Documentation/merge-config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/merge-config.txt
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ include::fmt-merge-msg-config.txt[]
 merge.renameLimit::
 	The number of files to consider when performing rename detection
 	during a merge; if not specified, defaults to the value of
-	diff.renameLimit.
+	diff.renameLimit. This setting has no effect if rename detection
+	is turned off.
 
 merge.renormalize::
 	Tell Git that canonical representation of files in the