diff --git a/docs/userguide b/docs/userguide
index f7eb8ab1..03d4452c 100644
--- a/docs/userguide
+++ b/docs/userguide
@@ -178,10 +178,6 @@ and edit it with a text editor.
 
 === General configuration
 
-terminal::
-	Specifies the terminal emulator program you prefer. It will be started
-	by default when you press Mod1+Enter, but you can overwrite this. Refer
-	to it as +$terminal+ to keep things modular.
 font::
 	Specifies the default font you want i3 to use. Use an X core font
 	descriptor here, like
diff --git a/i3.config b/i3.config
index 6b429632..24110046 100644
--- a/i3.config
+++ b/i3.config
@@ -1,11 +1,6 @@
 # This configuration uses Mod1 and Mod3. Make sure they are mapped properly using xev(1)
 # and xmodmap(1). Usually, Mod1 is Alt (Alt_L) and Mod3 is Windows (Super_L)
 
-# Tell i3 about your preferred terminal. You can refer to this as $terminal
-# later. It is recommended to set this option to allow i3 to open a terminal
-# containing the introduction on first start.
-terminal /usr/bin/urxvt
-
 # ISO 10646 = Unicode
 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
 
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.y b/src/cfgparse.y
index efed14e0..ff96bb5b 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.y
+++ b/src/cfgparse.y
@@ -486,8 +486,8 @@ exec:
 terminal:
         TOKTERMINAL WHITESPACE STR
         {
-                config.terminal = sstrdup($<string>3);
-                printf("terminal %s\n", config.terminal);
+                LOG("The terminal option is DEPRECATED and has no effect. "
+                    "Please remove it from your configuration file.");
         }
         ;
 
diff --git a/src/config.c b/src/config.c
index 06953b0d..c2622730 100644
--- a/src/config.c
+++ b/src/config.c
@@ -597,7 +597,6 @@ void load_configuration(xcb_connection_t *conn, const char *override_configpath,
         }
         }
 
-        REQUIRED_OPTION(terminal);
         REQUIRED_OPTION(font);
 
         /* Set an empty name for every workspace which got no name */