diff --git a/doc/api/modules.md b/doc/api/modules.md
index 7c814351a62fa2..40135a804b8631 100644
--- a/doc/api/modules.md
+++ b/doc/api/modules.md
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ folders as modules, and work for both `require` and `import`.
 
 If the module identifier passed to `require()` is not a
 [core](#core-modules) module, and does not begin with `'/'`, `'../'`, or
-`'./'`, then Node.js starts at the parent directory of the current module, and
+`'./'`, then Node.js starts at the directory of the current module, and
 adds `/node_modules`, and attempts to load the module from that location.
 Node.js will not append `node_modules` to a path already ending in
 `node_modules`.