diff --git a/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl b/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
index eb7118e86ea68c..c459402a9c20c7 100644
--- a/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
+++ b/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ the same object. `fill!(A, Foo())` will return `A` filled with the result of eva
 fill!
 
 """
-    read!(stream, array::Array)
+    read!(stream or filename, array::Array)
 
-Read binary data from a stream, filling in the argument `array`.
+Read binary data from a stream or file, filling in the argument `array`.
 """
 read!
 
diff --git a/doc/stdlib/io-network.rst b/doc/stdlib/io-network.rst
index 33e3236ebc73bd..19a0880de1114e 100644
--- a/doc/stdlib/io-network.rst
+++ b/doc/stdlib/io-network.rst
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ General I/O
 
    Read a series of values of the given type from a stream, in canonical binary representation. ``dims`` is either a tuple or a series of integer arguments specifying the size of ``Array`` to return.
 
-.. function:: read!(stream, array::Array)
+.. function:: read!(stream or filename, array::Array)
 
    .. Docstring generated from Julia source