diff --git a/src/bin/pgbench/pgbench.c b/src/bin/pgbench/pgbench.c
index 508ed218e8..09e20f1fef 100644
--- a/src/bin/pgbench/pgbench.c
+++ b/src/bin/pgbench/pgbench.c
@@ -876,7 +876,12 @@ usage(void)
 		   "\nInitialization options:\n"
 		   "  -i, --initialize         invokes initialization mode\n"
 		   "  -I, --init-steps=[" ALL_INIT_STEPS "]+ (default \"" DEFAULT_INIT_STEPS "\")\n"
-		   "                           run selected initialization steps\n"
+		   "                           run selected initialization steps, in the specified order.\n"
+		   "                           These steps operate on standard tables used by pgbench\n"
+		   "                           'd' drops the tables, 't' creates the tables, 'g' generates\n"
+		   "                           the data on client-side, 'G' generates data on server-side,\n"
+		   "                           'v' vaccums the tables, 'p' creates primary key constraints,\n"
+		   "                           and 'f' creates foreign key constraints\n"
 		   "  -F, --fillfactor=NUM     set fill factor\n"
 		   "  -n, --no-vacuum          do not run VACUUM during initialization\n"
 		   "  -q, --quiet              quiet logging (one message each 5 seconds)\n"