diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5d48d630d0..cfe529b75e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 [![Docs Build](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit/actions/workflows/docs.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit/actions/workflows/docs.yml) [![Binary wheels](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit/actions/workflows/wheels.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit/actions/workflows/wheels.yml) [![Tests](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit/actions/workflows/tests.yml)
 
 
-The succinct tree sequence (`tskit) format is an efficient way of representing
+The succinct tree sequence (`tskit`) format is an efficient way of representing
 the genetic history - sometimes known as an Ancestral Recombination Graph or ARG -
 of a set of related DNA sequences. `Tskit` is used
 by a number of software libraries and programs (such as