diff --git a/docs/reference/cli.rst b/docs/reference/cli.rst
index 830002c36..6bac72fee 100644
--- a/docs/reference/cli.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/cli.rst
@@ -137,8 +137,9 @@ be useful for piping into other Unix commands (such as `xargs`_). Similarly, the
 ``-f`` option lets you specify a specific format with which to print every album
 or track. This uses the same template syntax as beets' :doc:`path formats
 <pathformat>`. For example, the command ``beet ls -af '$album: $tracktotal'
-beatles`` prints out the number of tracks on each Beatles album. Remember to
-enclose the template argument in single quotes to avoid shell expansion.
+beatles`` prints out the number of tracks on each Beatles album. In Unix shells,
+remember to enclose the template argument in single quotes to avoid environment
+variable expansion.
 
 .. _xargs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xargs