diff --git a/library/std/src/fs.rs b/library/std/src/fs.rs
index c550378e7d6b7..82c27312d0f44 100644
--- a/library/std/src/fs.rs
+++ b/library/std/src/fs.rs
@@ -2511,9 +2511,10 @@ impl AsInnerMut<fs_imp::DirBuilder> for DirBuilder {
 /// This function will traverse symbolic links to query information about the
 /// destination file. In case of broken symbolic links this will return `Ok(false)`.
 ///
-/// As opposed to the [`Path::exists`] method, this one doesn't silently ignore errors
-/// unrelated to the path not existing. (E.g. it will return `Err(_)` in case of permission
-/// denied on some of the parent directories.)
+/// As opposed to the [`Path::exists`] method, this will only return `Ok(true)` or `Ok(false)`
+/// if the path was _verified_ to exist or not exist. If its existence can neither be confirmed
+/// nor denied, an `Err(_)` will be propagated instead. This can be the case if e.g. listing
+/// permission is denied on one of the parent directories.
 ///
 /// Note that while this avoids some pitfalls of the `exists()` method, it still can not
 /// prevent time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) bugs. You should only use it in scenarios
diff --git a/library/std/src/path.rs b/library/std/src/path.rs
index dbc18f7827e60..6aa7ae7ef9025 100644
--- a/library/std/src/path.rs
+++ b/library/std/src/path.rs
@@ -2844,9 +2844,11 @@ impl Path {
     /// This function will traverse symbolic links to query information about the
     /// destination file. In case of broken symbolic links this will return `Ok(false)`.
     ///
-    /// As opposed to the [`exists()`] method, this one doesn't silently ignore errors
-    /// unrelated to the path not existing. (E.g. it will return `Err(_)` in case of permission
-    /// denied on some of the parent directories.)
+    /// [`Path::exists()`] only checks whether or not a path was both found and readable. By
+    /// contrast, `try_exists` will return `Ok(true)` or `Ok(false)`, respectively, if the path
+    /// was _verified_ to exist or not exist. If its existence can neither be confirmed nor
+    /// denied, it will propagate an `Err(_)` instead. This can be the case if e.g. listing
+    /// permission is denied on one of the parent directories.
     ///
     /// Note that while this avoids some pitfalls of the `exists()` method, it still can not
     /// prevent time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) bugs. You should only use it in scenarios