diff --git a/lib/spack/docs/build_systems/autotoolspackage.rst b/lib/spack/docs/build_systems/autotoolspackage.rst
index 8e7e7d5d916..d341d28d086 100644
--- a/lib/spack/docs/build_systems/autotoolspackage.rst
+++ b/lib/spack/docs/build_systems/autotoolspackage.rst
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ For example:
 .. code-block:: python
 
    variant('profiler', when='@2.0:')
-   config_args += self.with_or_without('profiler)
+   config_args += self.with_or_without('profiler')
 
 will neither add ``--with-profiler`` nor ``--without-profiler`` when the version is
 below ``2.0``.