diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/WildcardQuery.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/WildcardQuery.java
index 1a041ebb5d1..97683c6cbc8 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/WildcardQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/WildcardQuery.java
@@ -28,7 +28,10 @@ import java.util.List;
 
 /** Implements the wildcard search query. Supported wildcards are <code>*</code>, which
  * matches any character sequence (including the empty one), and <code>?</code>,
- * which matches any single character. Note this query can be slow, as it
+ * which matches any single character. If you want to treat a wildcard as a literal
+ * character instead, escape it with '\'.
+ * <p>
+ * Note this query can be slow, as it
  * needs to iterate over many terms. In order to prevent extremely slow WildcardQueries,
  * a Wildcard term should not start with the wildcard <code>*</code>
  *