diff --git a/src/SIL.Machine/Corpora/UsfmTextBase.cs b/src/SIL.Machine/Corpora/UsfmTextBase.cs
index ee3d84f8..bdeb7578 100644
--- a/src/SIL.Machine/Corpora/UsfmTextBase.cs
+++ b/src/SIL.Machine/Corpora/UsfmTextBase.cs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ protected override IEnumerable<TextRow> GetVersesInDocOrder()
                 if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Project))
                     sb.Append($" in project '{Project}'");
                 sb.Append($". Verse: {parser.State.VerseRef}, line: {parser.State.LineNumber}, ");
-                sb.Append($"column: {parser.State.ColumnNumber}, error: '{ex.Message}'");
+                sb.Append($"character: {parser.State.ColumnNumber}, error: '{ex.Message}'");
                 throw new InvalidOperationException(sb.ToString(), ex);
             }
             return rowCollector.Rows;