diff --git a/lib/elixir/src/elixir_tokenizer.erl b/lib/elixir/src/elixir_tokenizer.erl
index 3b25341a8c..201d19fd94 100644
--- a/lib/elixir/src/elixir_tokenizer.erl
+++ b/lib/elixir/src/elixir_tokenizer.erl
@@ -879,7 +879,7 @@ extract_heredoc(Line0, Column0, Rest0, Marker, Scope) ->
           {error, {ErrorLine, ErrorColumn, Message, Token}}
       end;
     error ->
-      Message = "heredoc start must be followed by a new line after ",
+      Message = "heredoc allows only zero or more whitespace characters followed by a new line after ",
       {error, {Line0, Column0, io_lib:format(Message, []), [Marker, Marker, Marker]}}
   end.
 
diff --git a/lib/elixir/test/elixir/kernel/errors_test.exs b/lib/elixir/test/elixir/kernel/errors_test.exs
index aa5233ef12..b786214aa3 100644
--- a/lib/elixir/test/elixir/kernel/errors_test.exs
+++ b/lib/elixir/test/elixir/kernel/errors_test.exs
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ defmodule Kernel.ErrorsTest do
 
   test "heredoc start" do
     assert_eval_raise SyntaxError,
-                      "nofile:1: heredoc start must be followed by a new line after \"\"\"",
+                      "nofile:1: heredoc allows only zero or more whitespace characters followed by a new line after \"\"\"",
                       '"""bar\n"""'
   end