diff --git a/Lib/email/message.py b/Lib/email/message.py
index e44217b..23cedf6 100644
--- a/Lib/email/message.py
+++ b/Lib/email/message.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 SEMISPACE = '; '
 
 # Regular expression that matches `special' characters in parameters, the
-# existance of which force quoting of the parameter value.
+# existence of which force quoting of the parameter value.
 tspecials = re.compile(r'[ \(\)<>@,;:\\"/\[\]\?=]')