diff --git a/lib/app/dataMixin.js b/lib/app/dataMixin.js
index ea8ea40c10..fd003d926f 100644
--- a/lib/app/dataMixin.js
+++ b/lib/app/dataMixin.js
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@ export default function dataMixin (siteData) {
           : selfTitle || 'VuePress'
       },
       $description () {
+        // #565 hoist description from meta
+        if (this.$page.frontmatter.meta) {
+          const descriptionMeta = this.$page.frontmatter.meta.filter(item => item.name === 'description')[0]
+          if (descriptionMeta) return descriptionMeta.content
+        }
         return this.$page.frontmatter.description || this.$localeConfig.description || this.$site.description || ''
       },
       $lang () {
diff --git a/lib/build.js b/lib/build.js
index 33003a01c4..d43dbb5aa2 100644
--- a/lib/build.js
+++ b/lib/build.js
@@ -138,7 +138,10 @@ module.exports = async function build (sourceDir, cliOptions = {}) {
     readline.cursorTo(process.stdout, 0)
     process.stdout.write(`Rendering page: ${pagePath}`)
 
-    const pageMeta = renderPageMeta(page.frontmatter && page.frontmatter.meta)
+    // #565 avoid duplicate description
+    const meta = (page.frontmatter && page.frontmatter.meta || []).filter(item => item.name !== 'description')
+    const pageMeta = renderPageMeta(meta)
+
     const context = {
       url: pagePath,
       userHeadTags,