diff --git a/doc/source/io.rst b/doc/source/io.rst
index cc51fbd1e30ab..af8bca14e5d6f 100644
--- a/doc/source/io.rst
+++ b/doc/source/io.rst
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ delimiter : str, default ``None``
   Alternative argument name for sep.
 delim_whitespace : boolean, default False
   Specifies whether or not whitespace (e.g. ``' '`` or ``'\t'``)
-  will be used as the delimiter. Equivalent to setting ``sep='\+s'``.
+  will be used as the delimiter. Equivalent to setting ``sep='\s+'``.
   If this option is set to True, nothing should be passed in for the
   ``delimiter`` parameter.
 
diff --git a/pandas/io/parsers.py b/pandas/io/parsers.py
index f4527df56db88..25639984e4ccf 100755
--- a/pandas/io/parsers.py
+++ b/pandas/io/parsers.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
     Alternative argument name for sep.
 delim_whitespace : boolean, default False
     Specifies whether or not whitespace (e.g. ``' '`` or ``'\t'``) will be
-    used as the sep. Equivalent to setting ``sep='\+s'``. If this option
+    used as the sep. Equivalent to setting ``sep='\s+'``. If this option
     is set to True, nothing should be passed in for the ``delimiter``
     parameter.