diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index a223c4e563bf..d476deb356fd 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -1669,7 +1669,7 @@ def acorr(self, x, **kwargs):
     @_preprocess_data(replace_names=["x", "y"], label_namer="y")
     def xcorr(self, x, y, normed=True, detrend=mlab.detrend_none,
               usevlines=True, maxlags=10, **kwargs):
-        """
+        r"""
         Plot the cross correlation between *x* and *y*.
 
         The correlation with lag k is defined as