diff --git a/src/plots/cartesian/layout_attributes.js b/src/plots/cartesian/layout_attributes.js
index 784db0504b2..b4c4d134bc3 100644
--- a/src/plots/cartesian/layout_attributes.js
+++ b/src/plots/cartesian/layout_attributes.js
@@ -131,7 +131,9 @@ module.exports = {
         dflt: 0,
         role: 'style',
         description: [
-            'Sets the number of ticks.',
+            'Specifies the maximum number of ticks for the particular axis.',
+            'The actual number of ticks will be chosen automatically to be',
+            'less than or equal to `nticks`.',
             'Has an effect only if `tickmode` is set to *auto*.'
         ].join(' ')
     },
diff --git a/src/traces/contour/attributes.js b/src/traces/contour/attributes.js
index ae32d6e4b66..a0822e2b979 100644
--- a/src/traces/contour/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/contour/attributes.js
@@ -47,7 +47,9 @@ module.exports = extendFlat({},
             dflt: 0,
             role: 'style',
             description: [
-                'Sets the number of contour levels.',
+                'Sets the maximum number of contour levels. The actual number',
+                'of contours will be chosen automatically to be less than or',
+                'equal to the value of `ncontours`.',
                 'Has an effect only if `autocontour` is *true*.'
             ].join(' ')
         },