diff --git a/Lib/sre.py b/Lib/sre.py
index 8d36b14d965..390094aaa68 100644
--- a/Lib/sre.py
+++ b/Lib/sre.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-"""This file is only retained for backwards compatability.
+"""This file is only retained for backwards compatibility.
 It will be removed in the future.  sre was moved to re in version 2.5.
 """