diff --git a/jax/experimental/checkify.py b/jax/experimental/checkify.py
index 2624f0c3f..ac4880fcd 100644
--- a/jax/experimental/checkify.py
+++ b/jax/experimental/checkify.py
@@ -275,15 +275,33 @@ def is_scalar_pred(pred) -> bool:
           pred.dtype == jnp.dtype('bool'))
 
 def check_error(error: Error) -> None:
-  """Check if an error has occurred.
+  """Raise an Exception if `error` represents a failure. Functionalized by `checkify`.
 
-  When running in an un-staged function, this will throw the error
-  if an error has occured.
-  When running in a staged function, the error will be threaded back
-  into the function, so it can be functionalized later.
+  The semantics of this function are equivalent to:
+  
+    def check_error(err: Error) -> None:
+      err.throw()  # can raise ValueError Exception
+      
+  But unlike that implementation, `check_error` can be functionalized using
+  the `checkify` transformation.
 
-  This is useful when you want to re-check an error after you've
-  functionalized a function.
+  This function is similar to `check` but with a different signature: whereas
+  `check` takes as arguments a boolean predicate and a new error message
+  string, this function takes an `Error` value as argument. Both `check` and
+  this function raise a Python Exception on failure (a side-effect), and thus
+  cannot be staged out by `jit`, `pmap`, `scan`, etc. Both also can be
+  functionalized by using `checkify`.
+  
+  But unlike `check`, this function is like a direct inverse of `checkify`: whereas
+  `checkify` takes as input a function which can raise a Python Exception and
+  produces a new function without that effect but which produces an `Error`
+  value as output, this `check_error` function can accept an `Error` value as
+  input and can produce the side-effect of raising an Exception. That is, while
+  `checkify` goes from functionalizable Exception effect to error value, this
+  `check_error` goes from error value to functionalizable Exception effect.
+
+  `check_error` is useful when you want to turn checks represented by an `Error` value
+  (produced by functionalizing `check`s via `checkify`) back into Python Exceptions.
 
   Args:
     error: Error to check
@@ -575,16 +593,16 @@ Out = TypeVar('Out')
 
 
 def checkify(fun: Callable[..., Out],
-             errors: FrozenSet[ErrorCategory] = user_checks
+             errors: Set[ErrorCategory] = user_checks
              ) -> Callable[..., Tuple[Error, Out]]:
-  """Check for run-time errors in ``fun``.
+  """Functionalize `check` calls in `fun`, and optionally add run-time error checks.
 
   Run-time errors are either user-added ``checkify.check`` assertions, or
   automatically added checks like NaN checks, depending on the ``errors``
   argument.
 
-  The returned function will return an Error object along with the output of
-  the function. ``err.get()`` will either return ``None`` (if no error occurred)
+  The returned function will return an Error object `err` along with the output of
+  the original function. ``err.get()`` will either return ``None`` (if no error occurred)
   or a string containing an error message. This error message will correspond to
   the first error which occurred.
 
@@ -596,7 +614,7 @@ def checkify(fun: Callable[..., Out],
     - ErrorCategory.DIV: division by zero
     - ErrorCategory.OOB: an indexing operation was out-of-bounds
 
-  Multiple categories can be enabled together (eg. ``errors={ErrorCategory.NAN,
+  Multiple categories can be enabled together by creating a `Set` (eg. ``errors={ErrorCategory.NAN,
   ErrorCategory.OOB}``).
 
   Args:
@@ -604,7 +622,9 @@ def checkify(fun: Callable[..., Out],
     errors: Enabled errors. Options are NAN, OOB, DIV. By default USER_CHECK is
       enabled.
   Returns:
-    A function with output signature (Error, out)
+    A function which accepts the same arguments as ``fun`` and returns as output
+    a pair where the first element is an ``Error`` value, representing any failed
+    ``check``s, and the second element is the original output of ``fun``.
 
   For example: