diff --git a/src/runtime/error.go b/src/runtime/error.go
index 9017c0436c..8e50c0fea4 100644
--- a/src/runtime/error.go
+++ b/src/runtime/error.go
@@ -10,14 +10,24 @@ import (
 	"internal/runtime/sys"
 )
 
-// The Error interface identifies a run time error.
+// Error identifies a runtime error used in panic.
+//
+// The Go runtime triggers panics for a variety of cases, as described by the
+// Go Language Spec, such as out-of-bounds slice/array access, close of nil
+// channels, type assertion failures, etc.
+//
+// When these cases occur, the Go runtime panics with an error that implements
+// Error. This can be useful when recovering from panics to distinguish between
+// custom application panics and fundamental runtime panics.
+//
+// Packages outside of the Go standard library should not implement Error.
 type Error interface {
 	error
 
 	// RuntimeError is a no-op function but
-	// serves to distinguish types that are run time
+	// serves to distinguish types that are runtime
 	// errors from ordinary errors: a type is a
-	// run time error if it has a RuntimeError method.
+	// runtime error if it has a RuntimeError method.
 	RuntimeError()
 }