diff --git a/src/scanpy/preprocessing/_docs.py b/src/scanpy/preprocessing/_docs.py
index aa1378bd67..f61d4b577d 100644
--- a/src/scanpy/preprocessing/_docs.py
+++ b/src/scanpy/preprocessing/_docs.py
@@ -72,8 +72,6 @@
 
 `total_{expr_type}`
     E.g. "total_counts". Sum of counts for a gene.
-`n_genes_by_{expr_type}`
-    E.g. "n_genes_by_counts". The number of genes with at least 1 count in a cell. Calculated for all cells.
 `mean_{expr_type}`
     E.g. "mean_counts". Mean expression over all cells.
 `n_cells_by_{expr_type}`