diff --git a/racket/collects/racket/cmdline.rkt b/racket/collects/racket/cmdline.rkt
index e2686140aa..88be0d10fd 100644
--- a/racket/collects/racket/cmdline.rkt
+++ b/racket/collects/racket/cmdline.rkt
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@
           (bad-table "~a line must be a string: ~e" (car spec) line))
         (begin
           (unless (and (list? line) (= (length line) 3))
-            (bad-table "spec-line must be a list of three or four items: ~e" line))
+            (bad-table "spec-line must be a list of three items: ~e" line))
           (unless (list? (car line))
             (bad-table "flags part of a spec-line must be a list: ~e" (car line)))
           (for ([flag (in-list (car line))])