diff --git a/changelog.d/19630.misc b/changelog.d/19630.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3d2b787f5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/19630.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix docstring for `limit` argument in `_maybe_backfill_inner(...)`.
diff --git a/synapse/handlers/federation.py b/synapse/handlers/federation.py
index 14805ac80f..ffff89c29c 100644
--- a/synapse/handlers/federation.py
+++ b/synapse/handlers/federation.py
@@ -242,7 +242,9 @@ class FederationHandler:
         Args:
             room_id: The room to backfill in.
             current_depth: The depth to check at for any upcoming backfill points.
-            limit: The max number of events to request from the remote federated server.
+            limit: The number of events that the pagination request will
+                return. This is used as part of the heuristic to decide if we
+                should back paginate.
             processing_start_time: The time when `maybe_backfill` started processing.
                 Only used for timing. If `None`, no timing observation will be made.