diff --git a/django/utils/version.py b/django/utils/version.py
index 9f51028cbd..6963899906 100644
--- a/django/utils/version.py
+++ b/django/utils/version.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ from django.utils.lru_cache import lru_cache
 
 
 def get_version(version=None):
-    "Returns a PEP 386-compliant version number from VERSION."
+    "Returns a PEP 440-compliant version number from VERSION."
     version = get_complete_version(version)
 
     # Now build the two parts of the version number:
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 403b66bdfd..35b82b68b4 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -79,10 +79,10 @@ except ImportError:
     release = version
 else:
     def django_release():
-        pep386ver = get_version()
-        if VERSION[3:5] == ('alpha', 0) and 'dev' not in pep386ver:
-            return pep386ver + '.dev'
-        return pep386ver
+        pep440ver = get_version()
+        if VERSION[3:5] == ('alpha', 0) and 'dev' not in pep440ver:
+            return pep440ver + '.dev'
+        return pep440ver
 
     release = django_release()
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/django-admin.txt b/docs/ref/django-admin.txt
index 1ec964b6ae..80e40485db 100644
--- a/docs/ref/django-admin.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/django-admin.txt
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ Determining the version
 
 Run ``django-admin version`` to display the current Django version.
 
-The output follows the schema described in :pep:`386`::
+The output follows the schema described in :pep:`440`::
 
     1.4.dev17026
     1.4a1