doc/notes.texi | 2 +-
 doc/rules.texi | 8 ++++----

diff --git a/doc/notes.texi b/doc/notes.texi
index bd33c31464a586f424c5830635923633489a3262bbfe30df21fe105ee425e225..b961fe6c1aa5870d4ec3cb5d259c7e4f2c4bcbc395b9f15b0eb2f8f67ec13292 100644
--- a/doc/notes.texi
+++ b/doc/notes.texi
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 @item @file{all} target is default
 @item @file{stdout} is always captured, but no target is created if it
     was empty
-@item empty targets are considered always out of date
+@item non-existent targets are considered always out of date
 @item @file{.do}'s @file{$3} is relative path to the file in target directory
 @item @file{.do} search goes up to @file{/} by default, but can be
     limited with either @env{$REDO_TOP_DIR} environment variable, or by
diff --git a/doc/rules.texi b/doc/rules.texi
index 0bc1fc37bb25ff0d51547df24e75c47dbefe60db231c68b63c39373e1eee3a1b..43b773fc9c14adb194db96f971577ac6f75fd11934d5c691bd7c940c942cb957 100644
--- a/doc/rules.texi
+++ b/doc/rules.texi
@@ -69,13 +69,13 @@ @item @file{.do}'s @code{stdout} is captured and written to the
     @code{$3} file. You have to produce either @code{stdout} output, or
     use @code{$3} directly, but not both.
 
-@item If there was no @code{stdout} output and no @code{$3} file is
-    explicitly created, then no output file is created at all. Target
-    does not produce anything, it is "empty".
+@item If neither @code{stdout} output nor @code{$3} file were
+    explicitly created, then no output file is created at all.
+    Target does not produce anything, it is "non-existent".
 
 @item @code{stderr} is not captured at all and can be seen by default.
 
-@item Empty targets are considered always out-of-date.
+@item Non-existent targets are considered always out-of-date.
 
 @item Dependency information is recorded by @command{redo-ifchange}
     command invocation. It takes list of dependencies (targets), on