diff --git a/docs/reference/ingest.asciidoc b/docs/reference/ingest.asciidoc
index f44cb17c22519..9cd7b4cd19b8a 100644
--- a/docs/reference/ingest.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/ingest.asciidoc
@@ -264,8 +264,8 @@ POST _reindex
 === Set a default pipeline
 
 Use the <<index-default-pipeline,`index.default_pipeline`>> index setting to set
-a default pipeline. {es} applies this pipeline if no `pipeline` parameter
-is specified.
+a default pipeline. {es} applies this pipeline to indexing requests if no
+`pipeline` parameter is specified.
 
 [discrete]
 [[set-final-pipeline]]