diff --git a/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/render.jl b/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/render.jl
index 619b2c8b8ef4a..a97d273131536 100644
--- a/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/render.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Markdown/src/render/terminal/render.jl
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ function term(io::AnnotIO, md::Header{l}, columns) where l
 end
 
 function term(io::IO, md::Code, columns)
-    code = if md.language ∈ ("", "julia")
+    code = if md.language == "julia"
         highlight(md.code)
     elseif md.language == "julia-repl" || Base.startswith(md.language, "jldoctest")
         hl = AnnotatedString(md.code)
diff --git a/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl b/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl
index 5086aa0c9485c..3c5e102bb657e 100644
--- a/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl
+++ b/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl
@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ function formatdoc(d::DocStr)
     for part in d.text
         formatdoc(buffer, d, part)
     end
-    Markdown.MD(Any[Markdown.parse(seekstart(buffer))])
+    md = Markdown.MD(Any[Markdown.parse(seekstart(buffer))])
+    assume_julia_code!(md)
 end
 @noinline formatdoc(buffer, d, part) = print(buffer, part)
 
@@ -95,6 +96,27 @@ function parsedoc(d::DocStr)
     d.object
 end
 
+"""
+    assume_julia_code!(doc::Markdown.MD) -> doc
+
+Assume that code blocks with no language specified are Julia code.
+"""
+function assume_julia_code!(doc::Markdown.MD)
+    assume_julia_code!(doc.content)
+    doc
+end
+
+function assume_julia_code!(blocks::Vector)
+    for (i, block) in enumerate(blocks)
+        if block isa Markdown.Code && block.language == ""
+            blocks[i] = Markdown.Code("julia", block.code)
+        elseif block isa Vector || block isa Markdown.MD
+            assume_julia_code!(block)
+        end
+    end
+    blocks
+end
+
 ## Trimming long help ("# Extended help")
 
 struct Message  # For direct messages to the terminal
diff --git a/test/docs.jl b/test/docs.jl
index a6ef6afec5807..92d45fe05e397 100644
--- a/test/docs.jl
+++ b/test/docs.jl
@@ -575,8 +575,8 @@ end
 
 let T = meta(DocVars)[@var(DocVars.T)],
     S = meta(DocVars)[@var(DocVars.S)],
-    Tname = Markdown.parse("```\n$(curmod_prefix)DocVars.T\n```"),
-    Sname = Markdown.parse("```\n$(curmod_prefix)DocVars.S\n```")
+    Tname = Markdown.parse("```julia\n$(curmod_prefix)DocVars.T\n```"),
+    Sname = Markdown.parse("```julia\n$(curmod_prefix)DocVars.S\n```")
     # Splicing the expression directly doesn't work
     @test docstrings_equal(T.docs[Union{}],
         doc"""