diff --git a/Doc/library/csv.rst b/Doc/library/csv.rst
index 899ce0225ce7f3..3a41ae284f32b5 100644
--- a/Doc/library/csv.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/csv.rst
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ Dialects support the following attributes:
 
 .. attribute:: Dialect.skipinitialspace
 
-   When :const:`True`, whitespace immediately following the *delimiter* is ignored.
+   When :const:`True`, spaces immediately following the *delimiter* are ignored.
    The default is :const:`False`.
 
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_csv.py b/Lib/test/test_csv.py
index d94a6f24597be2..623a6b60b0fa55 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_csv.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_csv.py
@@ -335,6 +335,11 @@ def test_read_quoting(self):
                           ['abc,3'], [[]],
                           quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONNUMERIC)
 
+    def test_read_skipinitialspace(self):
+        self._read_test(['no space, space,  spaces,\ttab'],
+                        [['no space', 'space', 'spaces', '\ttab']],
+                        skipinitialspace=True)
+
     def test_read_bigfield(self):
         # This exercises the buffer realloc functionality and field size
         # limits.
diff --git a/Modules/_csv.c b/Modules/_csv.c
index 72f0791a4398b6..c991968f83cdba 100644
--- a/Modules/_csv.c
+++ b/Modules/_csv.c
@@ -698,7 +698,7 @@ parse_process_char(ReaderObj *self, _csvstate *module_state, Py_UCS4 c)
             self->state = ESCAPED_CHAR;
         }
         else if (c == ' ' && dialect->skipinitialspace)
-            /* ignore space at start of field */
+            /* ignore spaces at start of field */
             ;
         else if (c == dialect->delimiter) {
             /* save empty field */
@@ -1603,9 +1603,9 @@ PyDoc_STRVAR(csv_module_doc,
 "        quoting character.  It defaults to '\"'.\n"
 "    * delimiter - specifies a one-character string to use as the\n"
 "        field separator.  It defaults to ','.\n"
-"    * skipinitialspace - specifies how to interpret whitespace which\n"
-"        immediately follows a delimiter.  It defaults to False, which\n"
-"        means that whitespace immediately following a delimiter is part\n"
+"    * skipinitialspace - specifies how to interpret spaces which\n"
+"        immediately follow a delimiter.  It defaults to False, which\n"
+"        means that spaces immediately following a delimiter is part\n"
 "        of the following field.\n"
 "    * lineterminator -  specifies the character sequence which should\n"
 "        terminate rows.\n"