diff --git a/Objects/stringobject.c b/Objects/stringobject.c
index 9f154f3e1e4..9d518541ec7 100644
--- a/Objects/stringobject.c
+++ b/Objects/stringobject.c
@@ -1498,7 +1498,8 @@ PyDoc_STRVAR(split__doc__,
 Return a list of the words in the string S, using sep as the\n\
 delimiter string.  If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit\n\
 splits are done. If sep is not specified or is None, any\n\
-whitespace string is a separator.");
+whitespace string is a separator and leading and trailing\n\
+whitespace is stripped before splitting.");
 
 static PyObject *
 string_split(PyStringObject *self, PyObject *args)
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index a8e0e11cb3e..935d8b66528 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -7494,8 +7494,9 @@ PyDoc_STRVAR(split__doc__,
 \n\
 Return a list of the words in S, using sep as the\n\
 delimiter string.  If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit\n\
-splits are done. If sep is not specified or is None,\n\
-any whitespace string is a separator.");
+splits are done. If sep is not specified or is None, any\n\
+whitespace string is a separator and leading and trailing\n\
+whitespace is stripped before splitting.");
 
 static PyObject*
 unicode_split(PyUnicodeObject *self, PyObject *args)