diff --git a/src/colvar/Energy.cpp b/src/colvar/Energy.cpp
index 4ae61168d379b77802d6fb2dc65652aac011be42..0e03d35038c98d7440c7f4e963de78aa0d966a28 100644
--- a/src/colvar/Energy.cpp
+++ b/src/colvar/Energy.cpp
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ namespace colvar {
 
 //+PLUMEDOC COLVAR ENERGY
 /*
-Calculate the total energy of the simulation box.
+Calculate the total potential energy of the simulation box.
 
 Total energy can be biased with umbrella sampling \cite bart-karp98jpcb or with well tempered metadynamics \cite Bonomi:2009p17935.