diff --git a/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml b/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml
index 4cb99639b8..b8ac3dd62b 100644
--- a/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml
+++ b/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml
@@ -2942,7 +2942,9 @@
                 variable.
                 As an example, consider the
                 <ulink url='https://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit/cgit.cgi/poky/tree/meta/conf/machine/include/x86-base.inc'><filename>x86-base.inc</filename></ulink>
-                include file.
+                include file, which is a machine
+                (i.e. <ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_REF_URL;#var-MACHINE'><filename>MACHINE</filename></ulink>)
+                configuration file.
                 This include file is the reason all x86-based machines use the
                 <filename>linux-yocto</filename> kernel.
                 Here are the relevant lines from the include file: