diff --git a/workspaces/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js b/workspaces/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js
index df4f5015919db..0375e1851495a 100644
--- a/workspaces/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js
+++ b/workspaces/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js
@@ -269,6 +269,22 @@ module.exports = cls => class IdealTreeBuilder extends cls {
     this[_complete] = !!options.complete
     this[_preferDedupe] = !!options.preferDedupe
     this[_legacyBundling] = !!options.legacyBundling
+
+    // validates list of update names, they must
+    // be dep names only, no semver ranges are supported
+    for (const name of update.names) {
+      const spec = npa(name)
+      const validationError =
+        new TypeError(`Update arguments must not contain package version specifiers
+
+Try using the package name instead, e.g:
+    npm update ${spec.name}`)
+      validationError.code = 'EUPDATEARGS'
+
+      if (spec.fetchSpec !== 'latest') {
+        throw validationError
+      }
+    }
     this[_updateNames] = update.names
 
     this[_updateAll] = update.all
diff --git a/workspaces/arborist/test/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js b/workspaces/arborist/test/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js
index d8bfe8200c71c..be3a40042a9fd 100644
--- a/workspaces/arborist/test/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js
+++ b/workspaces/arborist/test/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js
@@ -2098,6 +2098,22 @@ t.test('update global', async t => {
 
   t.matchSnapshot(await printIdeal(path, { global: true, update: ['wrappy'] }),
     'updating sub-dep has no effect')
+
+  const invalidArgs = [
+    'once@1.4.0',
+    'once@next',
+    'once@^1.0.0',
+    'once@>=2.0.0',
+    'once@2',
+  ]
+  for (const updateName of invalidArgs) {
+    t.rejects(
+      printIdeal(path, { global: true, update: [updateName] }),
+      { code: 'EUPDATEARGS' },
+      'should throw an error when using semver ranges'
+    )
+  }
+
   t.matchSnapshot(await printIdeal(path, { global: true, update: ['once'] }),
     'update a single dep')
   t.matchSnapshot(await printIdeal(path, { global: true, update: true }),