diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplate.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplate.java
index dcb991095b2..c31306c7fa3 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplate.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplate.java
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ public class DynamicTemplate implements ToXContent {
                     return v;
                 }
             }
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No xcontent type matched on [" + value + "], possible values are "
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No field type matched on [" + value + "], possible values are "
                     + Arrays.toString(values()));
         }
 
@@ -208,6 +208,8 @@ public class DynamicTemplate implements ToXContent {
                 if (indexVersionCreated.onOrAfter(Version.V_6_0_0_alpha1_UNRELEASED)) {
                     throw e;
                 } else {
+                    DEPRECATION_LOGGER.deprecated("match_mapping_type [" + matchMappingType + "] is invalid and will be ignored: "
+                            + e.getMessage());
                     // this template is on an unknown type so it will never match anything
                     // null indicates that the template should be ignored
                     return null;
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplateTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplateTests.java
index 24023281f5e..42dd8c3bf37 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplateTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/DynamicTemplateTests.java
@@ -50,14 +50,15 @@ public class DynamicTemplateTests extends ESTestCase {
         templateDef.put("mapping", Collections.singletonMap("store", true));
         // if a wrong match type is specified, we ignore the template
         assertNull(DynamicTemplate.parse("my_template", templateDef, Version.V_5_0_0_alpha5));
-
+        assertWarnings("match_mapping_type [short] is invalid and will be ignored: No field type matched on [short], " +
+                "possible values are [object, string, long, double, boolean, date, binary]");
         Map<String, Object> templateDef2 = new HashMap<>();
         templateDef2.put("match_mapping_type", "text");
         templateDef2.put("mapping", Collections.singletonMap("store", true));
         // if a wrong match type is specified, we ignore the template
         IllegalArgumentException e = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
                 () -> DynamicTemplate.parse("my_template", templateDef2, Version.V_6_0_0_alpha1_UNRELEASED));
-        assertEquals("No xcontent type matched on [text], possible values are [object, string, long, double, boolean, date, binary]",
+        assertEquals("No field type matched on [text], possible values are [object, string, long, double, boolean, date, binary]",
                 e.getMessage());
     }