diff --git a/gensim/models/word2vec.py b/gensim/models/word2vec.py
index b8bb24f185..8c371ea8bd 100644
--- a/gensim/models/word2vec.py
+++ b/gensim/models/word2vec.py
@@ -727,7 +727,7 @@ def finalize_vocab(self, update=False):
     def sort_vocab(self):
         """Sort the vocabulary so the most frequent words have the lowest indexes."""
         if len(self.wv.syn0):
-            raise RuntimeError("must sort before initializing vectors/weights")
+            raise RuntimeError("cannot sort vocabulary after model weights already initialized.")
         self.wv.index2word.sort(key=lambda word: self.wv.vocab[word].count, reverse=True)
         for i, word in enumerate(self.wv.index2word):
             self.wv.vocab[word].index = i