diff --git a/src/completion.hh b/src/completion.hh
index 1cc219c0..e2ca294f 100644
--- a/src/completion.hh
+++ b/src/completion.hh
@@ -56,18 +56,18 @@ inline Completions offset_pos(Completions completion, ByteCount offset)
 }
 
 template<typename Container>
-CandidateList complete(StringView prefix, ByteCount cursor_pos,
+CandidateList complete(StringView query, ByteCount cursor_pos,
                        const Container& container)
 {
     using std::begin;
     static_assert(not std::is_same<decltype(*begin(container)), String>::value,
-                  "complete require long lived strings");
+                  "complete require long lived strings, not temporaries");
 
-    prefix = prefix.substr(0, cursor_pos);
+    query = query.substr(0, cursor_pos);
     Vector<RankedMatch> matches;
     for (const auto& str : container)
     {
-        if (RankedMatch match{str, prefix})
+        if (RankedMatch match{str, query})
             matches.push_back(match);
     }
     std::sort(matches.begin(), matches.end());