diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/store/IOContext.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/store/IOContext.java
index 3bb37ae1d191..f2c038d1bfde 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/store/IOContext.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/store/IOContext.java
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ public enum Context {
    * This flag is used for files that are a small fraction of the total index size and are expected
    * to be heavily accessed in random-access fashion. Some {@link Directory} implementations may
    * choose to load such files into physical memory (e.g. Java heap) as a way to provide stronger
-   * guarantees on query latency.
+   * guarantees on query latency. If this flag is set, then {@link #randomAccess} will be true.
    */
   public final boolean load;
 
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ public enum Context {
 
   public static final IOContext READ = new IOContext(false, false, false);
 
-  public static final IOContext LOAD = new IOContext(false, true, false);
+  public static final IOContext LOAD = new IOContext(false, true, true);
 
   public static final IOContext RANDOM = new IOContext(false, false, true);
 
@@ -90,6 +90,9 @@ private IOContext(boolean readOnce, boolean load, boolean randomAccess) {
     if (readOnce && randomAccess) {
       throw new IllegalArgumentException("cannot be both readOnce and randomAccess");
     }
+    if (load && randomAccess == false) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("cannot be load but not randomAccess");
+    }
     this.context = Context.READ;
     this.mergeInfo = null;
     this.readOnce = readOnce;
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java21/org/apache/lucene/store/PosixNativeAccess.java b/lucene/core/src/java21/org/apache/lucene/store/PosixNativeAccess.java
index 39c0e4129b8c..b0cf34c9dcf4 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java21/org/apache/lucene/store/PosixNativeAccess.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java21/org/apache/lucene/store/PosixNativeAccess.java
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ private static MethodHandle findFunction(
 
   @Override
   public void madvise(MemorySegment segment, IOContext context) throws IOException {
+    // Note: madvise is bypassed if the segment should be preloaded via MemorySegment#load.
     if (segment.byteSize() == 0L) {
       return; // empty segments should be excluded, because they may have no address at all
     }