diff --git a/spec.md b/spec.md
index 3a96ee42..e55debe7 100644
--- a/spec.md
+++ b/spec.md
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ Several terms are used frequently in this document and warrant basic definitions
 - **Push**: the act of uploading Blobs and Manifests to a Registry
 - **Pull**: the act of downloading Blobs and Manifests from a Registry
 - **Blob**: the binary form of content that is stored by a Registry, addressable by a Digest
-- **Manifest**: a JSON document which defines an Artifact. Manifests are defined under the OCI Image Spec <sup>[apdx-2](#appendix)</sup>
+- **Manifest**: a JSON document which defines an artifact uploaded via the manifests endpoint. A manifest may reference other blobs in a repository via descriptors. Examples of manifests are defined under the OCI Image Spec <sup>[apdx-2](#appendix)</sup>, such as the image manifest or the image index.</sup>
 - **Config**: a blob referenced in the Manifest which contains Artifact metadata. Config is defined under the OCI Image Spec <sup>[apdx-4](#appendix)</sup>
 - **Artifact**: one conceptual piece of content stored as Blobs with an accompanying Manifest containing a Config
 - **Digest**: a unique identifier created from a cryptographic hash of a Blob's content. Digests are defined under the OCI Image Spec <sup>[apdx-3](#appendix)</sup>
@@ -190,9 +190,9 @@ If the blob or manifest is not found in the registry, the response code MUST be
 #### Push
 
 Pushing an artifact typically works in the opposite order as a pull: the blobs making up the artifact are uploaded first,
-and the manifest last. Strictly speaking, content can be uploaded to the registry in any order, but a registry MAY reject
-a manifest if it references blobs that are not yet uploaded, resulting in a `BLOB_UNKNOWN` error <sup>[code-1](#error-codes)</sup>.
-A useful diagram is provided [here](https://github.com/google/go-containerregistry/tree/d7f8d06c87ed209507dd5f2d723267fe35b38a9f/pkg/v1/remote#anatomy-of-an-image-upload).
+and the manifest last. A useful diagram is provided [here](https://github.com/google/go-containerregistry/tree/d7f8d06c87ed209507dd5f2d723267fe35b38a9f/pkg/v1/remote#anatomy-of-an-image-upload).
+
+A registry MAY reject a manifest of any type uploaded to the manifest endpoint if it references blobs that do not exist in the registry. Where a manifest is rejected for this reason, it must result in one or more `MANIFEST_BLOB_UNKNOWN` errors <sup>[code-1](#error-codes)</sup>.
 
 ##### Pushing blobs
 
@@ -556,9 +556,9 @@ The `code` field MUST be one of the following:
 | code-2  | `BLOB_UPLOAD_INVALID`   | blob upload invalid                            |
 | code-3  | `BLOB_UPLOAD_UNKNOWN`   | blob upload unknown to registry                |
 | code-4  | `DIGEST_INVALID`        | provided digest did not match uploaded content |
-| code-5  | `MANIFEST_BLOB_UNKNOWN` | blob unknown to registry                       |
+| code-5  | `MANIFEST_BLOB_UNKNOWN` | manifest references a blob unknown to registry |
 | code-6  | `MANIFEST_INVALID`      | manifest invalid                               |
-| code-7  | `MANIFEST_UNKNOWN`      | manifest unknown                               |
+| code-7  | `MANIFEST_UNKNOWN`      | manifest unknown to registry                   |
 | code-8  | `NAME_INVALID`          | invalid repository name                        |
 | code-9  | `NAME_UNKNOWN`          | repository name not known to registry          |
 | code-10 | `SIZE_INVALID`          | provided length did not match content length   |