diff --git a/source/declarations.tex b/source/declarations.tex
index a63c317a72..6243a16ab3 100644
--- a/source/declarations.tex
+++ b/source/declarations.tex
@@ -8505,6 +8505,9 @@
 the rules specifying to which entity or statement the attribute can apply or
 the syntax rules for the attribute's \grammarterm{attribute-argument-clause}, if any.
 \end{note}
+\begin{note}
+The \grammarterm{attribute}s specified in \ref{dcl.attr} have optional semantics: given a well-formed program, removing all instances of a particular such \grammarterm{attribute} results in a program whose observable behavior is a conforming realization of the original program.
+\end{note}
 An \grammarterm{attribute-token} is reserved for future standardization if
 \begin{itemize}
 \item it is not an \grammarterm{attribute-scoped-token} and