diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/metrics/startup/StartupTimeMetrics.java b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/metrics/startup/StartupTimeMetrics.java
index 7885f075ae..d4e8f78032 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/metrics/startup/StartupTimeMetrics.java
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-actuator/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/actuate/metrics/startup/StartupTimeMetrics.java
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ public class StartupTimeMetrics implements SmartApplicationListener {
 			return;
 		}
 		registerGauge(this.applicationReadyTimeMetricName,
-				"Time taken (ms) for the application to be ready to serve requests", event.getReadyTime(),
+				"Time taken (ms) for the application to be ready to service requests", event.getReadyTime(),
 				createTagsFrom(event.getSpringApplication()));
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/actuator/metrics.adoc b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/actuator/metrics.adoc
index 131aa77017..b882ef9d6d 100644
--- a/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/actuator/metrics.adoc
+++ b/spring-boot-project/spring-boot-docs/src/docs/asciidoc/actuator/metrics.adoc
@@ -661,7 +661,7 @@ The following system metrics are provided:
 Auto-configuration exposes application startup time metrics:
 
 * `application.started.time`: time taken to start the application.
-* `application.ready.time`: time taken for the application to be ready to serve requests.
+* `application.ready.time`: time taken for the application to be ready to service requests.
 
 Metrics are tagged by the fully qualified name of the application class.