diff --git a/collects/racket/provide-transform.rkt b/collects/racket/provide-transform.rkt
index fcef14e43d..ff82e09b76 100644
--- a/collects/racket/provide-transform.rkt
+++ b/collects/racket/provide-transform.rkt
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@
                      (unless (syntax? v)
                        (raise-syntax-error
                         #f
-                        "result from provide pre-transformer is not a list of exports"
+                        "result from provide pre-transformer is not a syntax object"
                         stx))
                      v)
                    stx))]