diff --git a/Lib/cgi.py b/Lib/cgi.py
index 310dc02b3c6..b4c620a9e40 100755
--- a/Lib/cgi.py
+++ b/Lib/cgi.py
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ def parse(fp=None, environ=os.environ, keep_blank_values=0, strict_parsing=0):
         environ         : environment dictionary; default: os.environ
 
         keep_blank_values: flag indicating whether blank values in
-            URL encoded forms should be treated as blank strings.
+            percent-encoded forms should be treated as blank strings.
             A true value indicates that blanks should be retained as
             blank strings.  The default false value indicates that
             blank values are to be ignored and treated as if they were
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ class FieldStorage:
         environ         : environment dictionary; default: os.environ
 
         keep_blank_values: flag indicating whether blank values in
-            URL encoded forms should be treated as blank strings.
+            percent-encoded forms should be treated as blank strings.
             A true value indicates that blanks should be retained as
             blank strings.  The default false value indicates that
             blank values are to be ignored and treated as if they were
diff --git a/Lib/logging/handlers.py b/Lib/logging/handlers.py
index deb735de65a..cda84e7010f 100644
--- a/Lib/logging/handlers.py
+++ b/Lib/logging/handlers.py
@@ -1018,7 +1018,7 @@ class HTTPHandler(logging.Handler):
         """
         Emit a record.
 
-        Send the record to the Web server as an URL-encoded dictionary
+        Send the record to the Web server as a percent-encoded dictionary
         """
         try:
             import httplib, urllib
diff --git a/Lib/urlparse.py b/Lib/urlparse.py
index 99ebe6ad334..4ac98673316 100644
--- a/Lib/urlparse.py
+++ b/Lib/urlparse.py
@@ -336,10 +336,10 @@ def parse_qs(qs, keep_blank_values=0, strict_parsing=0):
 
         Arguments:
 
-        qs: URL-encoded query string to be parsed
+        qs: percent-encoded query string to be parsed
 
         keep_blank_values: flag indicating whether blank values in
-            URL encoded queries should be treated as blank strings.
+            percent-encoded queries should be treated as blank strings.
             A true value indicates that blanks should be retained as
             blank strings.  The default false value indicates that
             blank values are to be ignored and treated as if they were
@@ -362,10 +362,10 @@ def parse_qsl(qs, keep_blank_values=0, strict_parsing=0):
 
     Arguments:
 
-    qs: URL-encoded query string to be parsed
+    qs: percent-encoded query string to be parsed
 
     keep_blank_values: flag indicating whether blank values in
-        URL encoded queries should be treated as blank strings.  A
+        percent-encoded queries should be treated as blank strings.  A
         true value indicates that blanks should be retained as blank
         strings.  The default false value indicates that blank values
         are to be ignored and treated as if they were  not included.