diff --git a/builtin/bisect--helper.c b/builtin/bisect--helper.c
index 1718df7f09..36c09b7238 100644
--- a/builtin/bisect--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/bisect--helper.c
@@ -52,8 +52,8 @@ static void set_terms(struct bisect_terms *terms, const char *bad,
 	terms->term_bad = xstrdup(bad);
 }
 
-static const char *vocab_bad = "bad|new";
-static const char *vocab_good = "good|old";
+static const char vocab_bad[] = "bad|new";
+static const char vocab_good[] = "good|old";
 
 /*
  * Check whether the string `term` belongs to the set of strings