diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
index c6c33d272b..6e35801625 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
@@ -1582,9 +1582,10 @@ include_dir 'conf.d'
         Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sort operations
         and hash tables before writing to temporary disk files. The value
         defaults to four megabytes (<literal>4MB</literal>).
-        Note that for a complex query, several sort or hash operations might be
-        running in parallel; each operation will be allowed to use as much memory
-        as this value specifies before it starts to write data into temporary
+        Note that a complex query might perform several sort and hash
+        operations at the same time, with each operation generally being
+        allowed to use as much memory as this value specifies before it
+        starts to write data into temporary
         files. Also, several running sessions could be doing such operations
         concurrently.  Therefore, the total memory used could be many
         times the value of <varname>work_mem</varname>; it is necessary to