diff --git a/R-package/R/lightgbm.R b/R-package/R/lightgbm.R
index f2b085473107..5be252ee976f 100644
--- a/R-package/R/lightgbm.R
+++ b/R-package/R/lightgbm.R
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 #'                 }
 #'             }
 #' @param eval_freq evaluation output frequency, only effective when verbose > 0 and \code{valids} has been provided
-#' @param init_model path of model file of \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model
+#' @param init_model path of model file or \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model
 #' @param nrounds number of training rounds
 #' @param obj objective function, can be character or custom objective function. Examples include
 #'            \code{regression}, \code{regression_l1}, \code{huber},
diff --git a/R-package/man/lgb.cv.Rd b/R-package/man/lgb.cv.Rd
index 0717bff7d58f..0e6db2e2cb0f 100644
--- a/R-package/man/lgb.cv.Rd
+++ b/R-package/man/lgb.cv.Rd
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ by the values of outcome labels.}
 (each element must be a vector of test fold's indices). When folds are supplied,
 the \code{nfold} and \code{stratified} parameters are ignored.}
 
-\item{init_model}{path of model file of \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
+\item{init_model}{path of model file or \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
 
 \item{colnames}{feature names, if not null, will use this to overwrite the names in dataset}
 
diff --git a/R-package/man/lgb.train.Rd b/R-package/man/lgb.train.Rd
index 6090646b31f7..30589ef34e54 100644
--- a/R-package/man/lgb.train.Rd
+++ b/R-package/man/lgb.train.Rd
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ printing of evaluation during training}
 
 \item{eval_freq}{evaluation output frequency, only effective when verbose > 0 and \code{valids} has been provided}
 
-\item{init_model}{path of model file of \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
+\item{init_model}{path of model file or \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
 
 \item{colnames}{feature names, if not null, will use this to overwrite the names in dataset}
 
diff --git a/R-package/man/lgb_shared_params.Rd b/R-package/man/lgb_shared_params.Rd
index ce3de8d7a342..5b3bc6aad6e2 100644
--- a/R-package/man/lgb_shared_params.Rd
+++ b/R-package/man/lgb_shared_params.Rd
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ set to the iteration number of the best iteration.}
 
 \item{eval_freq}{evaluation output frequency, only effective when verbose > 0 and \code{valids} has been provided}
 
-\item{init_model}{path of model file of \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
+\item{init_model}{path of model file or \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
 
 \item{nrounds}{number of training rounds}
 
diff --git a/R-package/man/lightgbm.Rd b/R-package/man/lightgbm.Rd
index 4e834d040e33..18fb71e18ca6 100644
--- a/R-package/man/lightgbm.Rd
+++ b/R-package/man/lightgbm.Rd
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ fails to improve for \code{early_stopping_rounds} consecutive boosting rounds.
 If training stops early, the returned model will have attribute \code{best_iter}
 set to the iteration number of the best iteration.}
 
-\item{init_model}{path of model file of \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
+\item{init_model}{path of model file or \code{lgb.Booster} object, will continue training from this model}
 
 \item{callbacks}{List of callback functions that are applied at each iteration.}