diff --git a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
index ab3627c2cb..109059f11e 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
@@ -16,7 +16,12 @@ DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 Add or parse trailer metadata at the end of the otherwise
 free-form part of a commit message, or any other kind of text.
-For example, in the following commit message
+
+A _trailer_ in its simplest form is a key-value pair with a colon as a
+separator. A _trailer block_ consists of one or more trailers. The
+trailer block needs to be preceded by a blank line, where a _blank line_
+is either an empty or a whitespace-only line. For example, in the
+following commit message
 
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 subject