diff --git a/src/pynwb/base.py b/src/pynwb/base.py
index d1ca74a2f..02d2e3c0f 100644
--- a/src/pynwb/base.py
+++ b/src/pynwb/base.py
@@ -501,7 +501,7 @@ def data(self):
     @docval({'name': 'timeseries', 'type': TimeSeries, 'doc': 'the timeseries object to reference.'})
     def empty(cls, timeseries):
         """
-        Creates an empty TimeSeriesReference class to represent missing data.
+        Creates an empty TimeSeriesReference object to represent missing data.
 
         When missing data needs to be represented, NWB defines ``None`` for the complex data type ``(idx_start,
         count, TimeSeries)`` as (-1, -1, TimeSeries) for storage. The exact timeseries object will technically not