diff --git a/doc/man/julia.1 b/doc/man/julia.1
index a7d16abe3f85c..2d7f41b2217bc 100644
--- a/doc/man/julia.1
+++ b/doc/man/julia.1
@@ -200,8 +200,8 @@ Control whether inlining is permitted, including overriding @inline declarations
 Emit bounds checks always, never, or respect @inbounds declarations
 
 .TP
---math-mode={ieee|user}
-Disallow or enable unsafe floating point optimizations (overrides @fastmath declaration)
+--math-mode={ieee|user*}
+Always follow `ieee` floating point semantics or respect `@fastmath` declarations
 
 .TP
 --code-coverage[={none*|user|all}]
diff --git a/doc/src/manual/command-line-interface.md b/doc/src/manual/command-line-interface.md
index 448964bf1ef8a..1bb9507756aec 100644
--- a/doc/src/manual/command-line-interface.md
+++ b/doc/src/manual/command-line-interface.md
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ The following is a complete list of command-line switches available when launchi
 |`-g`, `--debug-info={0,1*,2}`          |Set the level of debug info generation (level is 2 if `-g` is used without a level) ($)|
 |`--inline={yes\|no}`                   |Control whether inlining is permitted, including overriding `@inline` declarations|
 |`--check-bounds={yes\|no\|auto*}`      |Emit bounds checks always, never, or respect `@inbounds` declarations ($)|
-|`--math-mode={ieee,fast}`              |Disallow or enable unsafe floating point optimizations (overrides `@fastmath` declaration)|
+|`--math-mode={ieee\|user*}`            |Always follow `ieee` floating point semantics or respect `@fastmath` declarations|
 |`--code-coverage[={none*\|user\|all}]` |Count executions of source lines (omitting setting is equivalent to `user`)|
 |`--code-coverage=@<path>`              |Count executions but only in files that fall under the given file path/directory. The `@` prefix is required to select this option. A `@` with no path will track the current directory.|
 |`--code-coverage=tracefile.info`       |Append coverage information to the LCOV tracefile (filename supports format tokens).|
diff --git a/src/jloptions.c b/src/jloptions.c
index 085e5f365ac46..9020404e70781 100644
--- a/src/jloptions.c
+++ b/src/jloptions.c
@@ -177,6 +177,7 @@ static const char opts[]  =
 #ifdef USE_POLLY
     " --polly={yes*|no}          Enable or disable the polyhedral optimizer Polly (overrides @polly declaration)\n"
 #endif
+    " --math-mode={ieee|user*}   Always follow `ieee` floating point semantics or respect `@fastmath` declarations\n\n"
 
     // instrumentation options
     " --code-coverage[={none*|user|all}]\n"
@@ -782,7 +783,7 @@ JL_DLLEXPORT void jl_parse_opts(int *argcp, char ***argvp)
             else if (!strcmp(optarg,"user"))
                 jl_options.fast_math = JL_OPTIONS_FAST_MATH_DEFAULT;
             else
-                jl_errorf("julia: invalid argument to --math-mode (%s)", optarg);
+                jl_errorf("julia: invalid argument to --math-mode={ieee|user} (%s)", optarg);
             break;
         case opt_worker:
             jl_options.worker = 1;