diff --git a/include/event2/util.h b/include/event2/util.h
index 3936786e..47391565 100644
--- a/include/event2/util.h
+++ b/include/event2/util.h
@@ -300,9 +300,9 @@ extern "C" {
 
 /**
  * A type wide enough to hold the output of "socket()" or "accept()".  On
- * Windows, this is an intptr_t; elsewhere, it is an int. */
+ * Windows, this is an SOCKET; elsewhere, it is an int. */
 #ifdef _WIN32
-#define evutil_socket_t intptr_t
+#define evutil_socket_t SOCKET
 #else
 #define evutil_socket_t int
 #endif