diff --git a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
index 32301c08a5c7..dd77413c82a2 100755
--- a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
+++ b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
@@ -955,7 +955,7 @@ def backward(self, loss, allreduce_gradients=True, release_loss=False):
 
         Arguments:
             loss: Torch tensor on which to execute backward propagation
-            allreduce_gradients: If this is False, then gradient averaging will be skipped. Default is True.
+            allreduce_gradients: is deprecated, ignored, and will soon be removed'
         """
 
         if not allreduce_gradients: