diff --git a/source/exceptions.tex b/source/exceptions.tex
index a462fe0bff..b6eae9fd95 100644
--- a/source/exceptions.tex
+++ b/source/exceptions.tex
@@ -1012,9 +1012,10 @@
 
 \pnum
 \indextext{\idxcode{terminate}}%
-% FIXME: What does it mean to abandon exception handling?
-In some situations, exception handling is abandoned
-for less subtle error handling techniques.
+Some errors in a program cannot be recovered from, such as when an exception
+is not handled or a \tcode{std::thread} object is destroyed while its thread
+function is still executing. In such cases,
+the function \tcode{std::terminate}\iref{exception.terminate} is invoked.
 \begin{note}
 These situations are:
 \indextext{\idxcode{terminate}!called}%
@@ -1108,8 +1109,6 @@
 
 \pnum
 \indextext{\idxcode{terminate}}%
-In such cases,
-the function \tcode{std::terminate} is invoked\iref{exception.terminate}.
 In the situation where no matching handler is found, it is
 \impldef{stack unwinding before invocation of \tcode{std::terminate}}
 whether or not the stack is unwound