diff --git a/doc/man1/openssl-pkeyutl.pod.in b/doc/man1/openssl-pkeyutl.pod.in
index 22ce8c4edf830..e324656674443 100644
--- a/doc/man1/openssl-pkeyutl.pod.in
+++ b/doc/man1/openssl-pkeyutl.pod.in
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ B<openssl> B<pkeyutl>
 This command can be used to perform low-level public key
 operations using any supported algorithm.
 
+By default the signing operation (see B<-sign> option) is assumed.
+
 =head1 OPTIONS
 
 =over 4
@@ -82,7 +84,7 @@ is omitted but the signature algorithm requires one, a default value will be
 used. For signature algorithms like RSA, DSA and ECDSA, SHA-256 will be the
 default digest algorithm. For SM2, it will be SM3.
 At this time, HashEdDSA (the ph or "prehash" variant of EdDSA) is not supported,
-so the B<-digest> option cannot be used with EdDSA).
+so the B<-digest> option cannot be used with EdDSA.
 
 =item B<-out> I<filename>
 
@@ -133,22 +135,26 @@ The input is a certificate containing a public key.
 =item B<-rev>
 
 Reverse the order of the input buffer. This is useful for some libraries
-(such as CryptoAPI) which represent the buffer in little endian format.
+(such as CryptoAPI) which represent the buffer in little-endian format.
 This cannot be used in conjunction with B<-rawin>.
 
 =item B<-sign>
 
-Sign the input data (which must be a hash) and output the signed result. This
-requires a private key.
+Sign the input data and output the signed result. This requires a private key.
+The input data given with the B<-in> option should be a hash value
+unless the use of a message digest operation is implied,
 
 =item B<-verify>
 
-Verify the input data (which must be a hash) against the signature file and
-indicate if the verification succeeded or failed.
+Verify the input data against the signature given with the B<-sigfile> option
+and indicate if the verification succeeded or failed.
+The input data given with the B<-in> option should be a hash value
+unless the use of a message digest operation is implied,
 
 =item B<-verifyrecover>
 
-Verify the input data (which must be a hash) and output the recovered data.
+Verify the input data and output the recovered data.
+The input data given with the B<-in> option should be a hash value.
 
 =item B<-encrypt>