diff --git a/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/owdistancematrix.py b/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/owdistancematrix.py
index 32f00eefa23..093bc798fe2 100644
--- a/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/owdistancematrix.py
+++ b/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/owdistancematrix.py
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ def new_context(self, matrix, annotations):
         context = super().new_context()
         context.dim = matrix.shape[0]
         context.annotations = self._var_names(annotations)
-        context.annotation_idx = 1
+        context.annotation = context.annotations[1]
         context.selection = []
         return context
 
diff --git a/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/tests/test_owdistancematrix.py b/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/tests/test_owdistancematrix.py
index a01507a41ce..11204aaf3e3 100644
--- a/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/tests/test_owdistancematrix.py
+++ b/Orange/widgets/unsupervised/tests/test_owdistancematrix.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 from Orange.widgets.tests.base import WidgetTest
 from Orange.widgets.unsupervised.owdistancematrix import OWDistanceMatrix
 
-
 class TestOWDistanceMatrix(WidgetTest):
     def setUp(self):
         self.widget = self.create_widget(OWDistanceMatrix)
@@ -22,3 +21,10 @@ def test_set_distances(self):
         distances.row_items = None
         self.widget.set_distances(distances)
         self.assertNotIn(iris.domain[0], self.widget.annot_combo.model())
+
+    def test_context_attribute(self):
+        iris = Table("iris")
+        distances = Euclidean(iris, axis=0)
+        annotations = ["None", "Enumerate"]
+        self.widget.set_distances(distances)
+        self.widget.openContext(distances, annotations)