diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
index f8ad75bb11ea..7c9185458303 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
@@ -1852,7 +1852,7 @@ def axis(self, *args, emit=True, **kwargs):
                     xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax = limits
                 except (TypeError, ValueError) as err:
                     raise TypeError('the first argument to axis() must be an '
-                                    'interable of the form '
+                                    'iterable of the form '
                                     '[xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax]') from err
             else:
                 xmin = kwargs.pop('xmin', None)