diff --git a/django/template/defaultfilters.py b/django/template/defaultfilters.py
index 22babfd6c0d..1fd6d02c70a 100644
--- a/django/template/defaultfilters.py
+++ b/django/template/defaultfilters.py
@@ -254,13 +254,20 @@ def escape(value):
 escape = stringfilter(escape)
 
 def linebreaks(value):
-    "Converts newlines into <p> and <br />s"
+    """
+    Replaces line breaks in plain text with appropriate HTML; a single
+    newline becomes an HTML line break (``<br />``) and a new line
+    followed by a blank line becomes a paragraph break (``</p>``).
+    """
     from django.utils.html import linebreaks
     return linebreaks(value)
 linebreaks = stringfilter(linebreaks)
 
 def linebreaksbr(value):
-    "Converts newlines into <br />s"
+    """
+    Converts all newlines in a piece of plain text to HTML line breaks
+    (``<br />``).
+    """
     return value.replace('\n', '<br />')
 linebreaksbr = stringfilter(linebreaksbr)
 
diff --git a/docs/templates.txt b/docs/templates.txt
index 0c8cc79311b..dbed0ba5c94 100644
--- a/docs/templates.txt
+++ b/docs/templates.txt
@@ -1135,12 +1135,15 @@ Returns a boolean of whether the value's length is the argument.
 linebreaks
 ~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Converts newlines into ``<p>`` and ``<br />`` tags.
+Replaces line breaks in plain text with appropriate HTML; a single
+newline becomes an HTML line break (``<br />``) and a new line
+followed by a blank line becomes a paragraph break (``</p>``).
 
 linebreaksbr
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Converts newlines into ``<br />`` tags.
+Converts all newlines in a piece of plain text to HTML line breaks
+(``<br />``).
 
 linenumbers
 ~~~~~~~~~~~