diff --git a/doc/compute_ke_atom.html b/doc/compute_ke_atom.html
index 6abe1abb4a..8d09870276 100644
--- a/doc/compute_ke_atom.html
+++ b/doc/compute_ke_atom.html
@@ -24,15 +24,15 @@
 </PRE>
 <P><B>Description:</B>
 </P>
-<P>Define a computation that calculates the per-atom kinetic energy for
-each atom in a group.
-</P>
-<P>The value of the kinetic energy will be 0.0 for atoms not in the
-specified compute group.
+<P>Define a computation that calculates the per-atom translational
+kinetic energy for each atom in a group.
 </P>
 <P>The kinetic energy is simply 1/2 m v^2, where m is the mass and v is
 the velocity of each atom.
 </P>
+<P>The value of the kinetic energy will be 0.0 for atoms not in the
+specified compute group.
+</P>
 <P><B>Output info:</B>
 </P>
 <P>This compute calculates a scalar quantity for each atom, which can be
diff --git a/doc/compute_ke_atom.txt b/doc/compute_ke_atom.txt
index 5d8344678d..f8225dc060 100644
--- a/doc/compute_ke_atom.txt
+++ b/doc/compute_ke_atom.txt
@@ -21,15 +21,15 @@ compute 1 all ke/atom :pre
 
 [Description:]
 
-Define a computation that calculates the per-atom kinetic energy for
-each atom in a group.
-
-The value of the kinetic energy will be 0.0 for atoms not in the
-specified compute group.
+Define a computation that calculates the per-atom translational
+kinetic energy for each atom in a group.
 
 The kinetic energy is simply 1/2 m v^2, where m is the mass and v is
 the velocity of each atom.
 
+The value of the kinetic energy will be 0.0 for atoms not in the
+specified compute group.
+
 [Output info:]
 
 This compute calculates a scalar quantity for each atom, which can be
diff --git a/doc/thermo_style.html b/doc/thermo_style.html
index a6adc79fdc..98e0de83df 100644
--- a/doc/thermo_style.html
+++ b/doc/thermo_style.html
@@ -161,9 +161,12 @@ change the attributes of this potential energy via the
 
 <P>The kinetic energy of the system <I>ke</I> is inferred from the temperature
 of the system with 1/2 Kb T of energy for each degree of freedom.
-Thus using different <A HREF = "compute.html">compute commands</A> for calculating
+Thus, using different <A HREF = "compute.html">compute commands</A> for calculating
 temperature, via the <A HREF = "thermo_modify.html">thermo_modify temp</A> command,
-may yield different kinetic energies.
+may yield different kinetic energies, since different temperature
+compute can subtract out different non-thermal components of velocity
+and/or include different degrees of freedom (translational,
+rotational, etc).
 </P>
 <P>The potential energy of the system <I>pe</I> will include contributions
 from fixes if the <A HREF = "fix_modify.html">fix_modify thermo</A> option is set
diff --git a/doc/thermo_style.txt b/doc/thermo_style.txt
index e1f6eadd3e..da1565618d 100644
--- a/doc/thermo_style.txt
+++ b/doc/thermo_style.txt
@@ -155,9 +155,12 @@ change the attributes of this potential energy via the
 
 The kinetic energy of the system {ke} is inferred from the temperature
 of the system with 1/2 Kb T of energy for each degree of freedom.
-Thus using different "compute commands"_compute.html for calculating
+Thus, using different "compute commands"_compute.html for calculating
 temperature, via the "thermo_modify temp"_thermo_modify.html command,
-may yield different kinetic energies.
+may yield different kinetic energies, since different temperature
+compute can subtract out different non-thermal components of velocity
+and/or include different degrees of freedom (translational,
+rotational, etc).
 
 The potential energy of the system {pe} will include contributions
 from fixes if the "fix_modify thermo"_fix_modify.html option is set