diff --git a/lib/assert.js b/lib/assert.js
index a1631ff2e6f428..95a3b1d565f81b 100644
--- a/lib/assert.js
+++ b/lib/assert.js
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ const assert = module.exports = ok;
 
 // TODO(jasnell): Consider moving AssertionError into internal/errors.js
 class AssertionError extends Error {
-  constructor(options = {}) {
+  constructor(options) {
     if (typeof options !== 'object' || options === null) {
       // Lazy because the errors module itself uses assertions, leading to
       // a circular dependency. This can be eliminated by moving this class
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-assert.js b/test/parallel/test-assert.js
index ecbe9ce79a20ff..4489773a40ea1b 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-assert.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-assert.js
@@ -707,12 +707,16 @@ assert.throws(() => {
   code: 'ERR_ASSERTION',
   message: new RegExp(`^'${'A'.repeat(127)} === ''$`)}));
 
-[1, true, false, '', null, Infinity, Symbol('test')].forEach((input) => {
-  assert.throws(
-    () => new assert.AssertionError(input),
-    common.expectsError({
-      code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE',
-      type: TypeError,
-      message: /^The "options" argument must be of type object$/
-    }));
-});
+{
+  // bad args to AssertionError constructor should throw TypeError
+  const args = [1, true, false, '', null, Infinity, Symbol('test'), undefined];
+  args.forEach((input) => {
+    assert.throws(
+      () => new assert.AssertionError(input),
+      common.expectsError({
+        code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE',
+        type: TypeError,
+        message: /^The "options" argument must be of type object$/
+      }));
+  });
+}