diff --git a/qapi/machine.json b/qapi/machine.json
index 2c237563ea..756dacb06f 100644
--- a/qapi/machine.json
+++ b/qapi/machine.json
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 #
 # The comprehensive enumeration of QEMU system emulation ("softmmu")
 # targets. Run "./configure --help" in the project root directory, and
-# look for the *-softmmu targets near the "--target-list" option. The
+# look for the \*-softmmu targets near the "--target-list" option. The
 # individual target constants are not documented here, for the time
 # being.
 #