diff --git a/library/core/src/fmt/mod.rs b/library/core/src/fmt/mod.rs
index 372141e0933f5..7ec565edb3483 100644
--- a/library/core/src/fmt/mod.rs
+++ b/library/core/src/fmt/mod.rs
@@ -119,6 +119,10 @@ pub trait Write {
     ///
     /// This function will return an instance of [`Error`] on error.
     ///
+    /// The purpose of std::fmt::Error is to abort the formatting operation when the underlying
+    /// destination encounters some error preventing it from accepting more text; it should
+    /// generally be propagated rather than handled, at least when implementing formatting traits.
+    ///
     /// # Examples
     ///
     /// ```