diff --git a/usr.bin/ministat/ministat.1 b/usr.bin/ministat/ministat.1
index ea31c2329dc2..f713baef8fca 100644
--- a/usr.bin/ministat/ministat.1
+++ b/usr.bin/ministat/ministat.1
@@ -68,7 +68,9 @@ See
 .Xr strtok 3
 for details.
 .It Fl w Ar width
-Width of ASCII-art plot in characters, default is 74.
+Width of ASCII-art plot in characters.
+The default is the terminal width, or 74 if standard output is not a
+terminal.
 .El
 .Pp
 A sample output could look like this: