diff --git a/grudge/symbolic/primitives.py b/grudge/symbolic/primitives.py
index 8d7d81328db86b4f107e3efa1b915150811796c0..5dab6139b5e360589f10034548b23d5537d8bd0d 100644
--- a/grudge/symbolic/primitives.py
+++ b/grudge/symbolic/primitives.py
@@ -799,7 +799,7 @@ def mv_normal(dd, ambient_dim, dim=None):
     # "normal plane")
     #
     # The trick done here is that we take the surface normal, move it to the
-    # face and then take a cross product with the face normal to get the
+    # face and then take a cross product with the face tangent to get the
     # correct exterior face normal vector.
     assert dim == ambient_dim - 2