diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/_tight_layout.py b/lib/matplotlib/_tight_layout.py
index 81465f9b5db6..055f3fce04e4 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/_tight_layout.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/_tight_layout.py
@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@ def _auto_adjust_subplotpars(
     h_pad, w_pad : float
         Padding (height/width) between edges of adjacent subplots, as a
         fraction of the font size.  Defaults to *pad*.
-    rect : tuple[float, float, float, float]
-        [left, bottom, right, top] in normalized (0, 1) figure coordinates.
+    rect : tuple
+        (left, bottom, right, top), default: None.
     """
     rows, cols = shape
 
@@ -183,8 +183,8 @@ def auto_adjust_subplotpars(
     h_pad, w_pad : float
         Padding (height/width) between edges of adjacent subplots, as a
         fraction of the font size.  Defaults to *pad*.
-    rect : tuple[float, float, float, float]
-        [left, bottom, right, top] in normalized (0, 1) figure coordinates.
+    rect : tuple
+        (left, bottom, right, top), default: None.
     """
     nrows, ncols = nrows_ncols
     span_pairs = []
@@ -262,8 +262,8 @@ def get_tight_layout_figure(fig, axes_list, subplotspec_list, renderer,
     h_pad, w_pad : float
         Padding (height/width) between edges of adjacent subplots.  Defaults to
         *pad*.
-    rect : tuple[float, float, float, float], optional
-        (left, bottom, right, top) rectangle in normalized figure coordinates
+    rect : tuple (left, bottom, right, top), default: None.
+        rectangle in normalized figure coordinates
         that the whole subplots area (including labels) will fit into.
         Defaults to using the entire figure.
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
index 6daad3ca450a..c1d3a8d97d23 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
@@ -582,7 +582,7 @@ def __init__(self, fig, rect,
         fig : `~matplotlib.figure.Figure`
             The Axes is built in the `.Figure` *fig*.
 
-        rect : [left, bottom, width, height]
+        rect : tuple (left, bottom, width, height).
             The Axes is built in the rectangle *rect*. *rect* is in
             `.Figure` coordinates.
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/figure.py b/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
index 0b8ad9828b3d..d277c3045802 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/figure.py
@@ -519,8 +519,8 @@ def add_axes(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        rect : sequence of float
-            The dimensions [left, bottom, width, height] of the new Axes. All
+        rect : tuple (left, bottom, width, height)
+            The dimensions (left, bottom, width, height) of the new Axes. All
             quantities are in fractions of figure width and height.
 
         projection : {None, 'aitoff', 'hammer', 'lambert', 'mollweide', \
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py b/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py
index 90d0b57b609b..bf1e2db11d2c 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py
@@ -460,10 +460,10 @@ def tight_layout(self, figure, renderer=None,
         h_pad, w_pad : float, optional
             Padding (height/width) between edges of adjacent subplots.
             Defaults to *pad*.
-        rect : tuple of 4 floats, default: (0, 0, 1, 1), i.e. the whole figure
+        rect : tuple (left, bottom, right, top), default: None
             (left, bottom, right, top) rectangle in normalized figure
             coordinates that the whole subplots area (including labels) will
-            fit into.
+            fit into. Default (None) is the whole figure.
         """
 
         subplotspec_list = _tight_layout.get_subplotspec_list(
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/layout_engine.py b/lib/matplotlib/layout_engine.py
index fa4281a2ba02..f5a25eecae25 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/layout_engine.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/layout_engine.py
@@ -123,10 +123,9 @@ def __init__(self, *, pad=1.08, h_pad=None, w_pad=None,
         h_pad, w_pad : float
             Padding (height/width) between edges of adjacent subplots.
             Defaults to *pad*.
-        rect : tuple of 4 floats, optional
-            (left, bottom, right, top) rectangle in normalized figure
-            coordinates that the subplots (including labels)
-            will fit into. Defaults to using the entire figure.
+        rect : tuple (left, bottom, right, top), default: (0, 0, 1, 1).
+            rectangle in normalized figure coordinates that the subplots
+            (including labels) will fit into.
         """
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
         for td in ['pad', 'h_pad', 'w_pad', 'rect']:
diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py b/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py
index fb93342f49ae..38b86096b776 100644
--- a/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py
+++ b/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def __init__(
         ----------
         fig : Figure
             The parent figure.
-        rect : (float, float, float, float)
+        rect : tuple (left, bottom, width, height), default: None.
             The ``(left, bottom, width, height)`` axes position.
         elev : float, default: 30
             The elevation angle in degrees rotates the camera above and below