diff --git a/openmc/settings.py b/openmc/settings.py
index 3d13d4a0811..a5abf2f3439 100644
--- a/openmc/settings.py
+++ b/openmc/settings.py
@@ -993,7 +993,7 @@ def weight_window_checkpoints(self, weight_window_checkpoints: dict):
 
     @property
     def max_splits(self):
-        raise AttributeError('max_splits has been replaced by max_history_splits')
+        raise AttributeError('max_splits has been deprecated. Please use max_history_splits instead')
 
     @property
     def max_history_splits(self) -> int: