diff --git a/docs/iris/src/whatsnew/contributions_3.0.0/docchange_2020-Apr-03_extract_clarification.txt b/docs/iris/src/whatsnew/contributions_3.0.0/docchange_2020-Apr-03_extract_clarification.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..48e2a99e57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/iris/src/whatsnew/contributions_3.0.0/docchange_2020-Apr-03_extract_clarification.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+* Updated the documentation for the :meth:`iris.cube.CubeList.extract` method, to specify when a single cube, as opposed to a CubeList, may be returned.
diff --git a/lib/iris/cube.py b/lib/iris/cube.py
index 0fc381725d..fec68c575c 100644
--- a/lib/iris/cube.py
+++ b/lib/iris/cube.py
@@ -282,7 +282,8 @@ def extract(self, constraints, strict=False):
 
         * strict - boolean
             If strict is True, then there must be exactly one cube which is
-            filtered per constraint.
+            filtered per constraint. Note: if a single constraint is given, a
+            Cube is returned rather than a CubeList.
 
         """
         return self._extract_and_merge(