diff --git a/runtime/doc/terminal.txt b/runtime/doc/terminal.txt
index f575c82..8dc19cb 100644
--- a/runtime/doc/terminal.txt
+++ b/runtime/doc/terminal.txt
@@ -352,7 +352,9 @@
 can even run Vim in the terminal!  That's used for debugging, see below.
 
 Environment variables are used to pass information to the running job:
-    TERM		name of the terminal, from the 'term' option
+    TERM		the name of the terminal, from the 'term' option or
+			$TERM in the GUI; falls back to "xterm" if it does not
+			start with "xterm"
     ROWS		number of rows in the terminal initially
     LINES		same as ROWS
     COLUMNS		number of columns in the terminal initially