diff --git a/src/index/inverted_index_reader.rs b/src/index/inverted_index_reader.rs
index 7a6655ca9..064d10954 100644
--- a/src/index/inverted_index_reader.rs
+++ b/src/index/inverted_index_reader.rs
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ impl InvertedIndexReader {
         terms: impl std::ops::RangeBounds<Term>,
         automaton: A,
         limit: Option<u64>,
-        merge_holes_under: usize,
+        merge_holes_under_bytes: usize,
     ) -> io::Result<impl Iterator<Item = TermInfo> + 'a>
     where
         A::State: Clone,
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ impl InvertedIndexReader {
         };
 
         let mut stream = range_builder
-            .into_stream_async_merging_holes(merge_holes_under)
+            .into_stream_async_merging_holes(merge_holes_under_bytes)
             .await?;
 
         let iter = std::iter::from_fn(move || stream.next().map(|(_k, v)| v.clone()));
@@ -345,11 +345,11 @@ impl InvertedIndexReader {
     {
         // merge holes under 4MiB, that's how many bytes we can hope to receive during a TTFB from
         // S3 (~80MiB/s, and 50ms latency)
-        let merge_holes_under = (80 * 1024 * 1024 * 50) / 1000;
+        let merge_holes_under_bytes = (80 * 1024 * 1024 * 50) / 1000;
         // we build a first iterator to download everything. Simply calling the function already
         // loads everything, but doesn't start iterating over the sstable.
         let mut _term_info = self
-            .get_term_range_async(.., automaton.clone(), None, merge_holes_under)
+            .get_term_range_async(.., automaton.clone(), None, merge_holes_under_bytes)
             .await?;
 
         // we build a 2nd iterator, this one with no holes, so we don't go through blocks we can't
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ impl InvertedIndexReader {
         let range_to_load = term_info
             .map(|term_info| term_info.postings_range)
             .coalesce(|range1, range2| {
-                if range1.end + merge_holes_under >= range2.start {
+                if range1.end + merge_holes_under_bytes >= range2.start {
                     Ok(range1.start..range2.end)
                 } else {
                     Err((range1, range2))
diff --git a/sstable/src/dictionary.rs b/sstable/src/dictionary.rs
index b351d64af..68708f202 100644
--- a/sstable/src/dictionary.rs
+++ b/sstable/src/dictionary.rs
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ impl<TSSTable: SSTable> Dictionary<TSSTable> {
         key_range: impl RangeBounds<[u8]>,
         limit: Option<u64>,
         automaton: &impl Automaton,
-        merge_holes_under: usize,
+        merge_holes_under_bytes: usize,
     ) -> io::Result<DeltaReader<TSSTable::ValueReader>> {
         let match_all = automaton.will_always_match(&automaton.start());
         if match_all {
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ impl<TSSTable: SSTable> Dictionary<TSSTable> {
             let blocks = stream::iter(self.get_block_iterator_for_range_and_automaton(
                 key_range,
                 automaton,
-                merge_holes_under,
+                merge_holes_under_bytes,
             ));
             let data = blocks
                 .map(|block_addr| {
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ impl<TSSTable: SSTable> Dictionary<TSSTable> {
         &'a self,
         key_range: impl RangeBounds<[u8]>,
         automaton: &'a impl Automaton,
-        merge_holes_under: usize,
+        merge_holes_under_bytes: usize,
     ) -> impl Iterator<Item = BlockAddr> + 'a {
         let lower_bound = match key_range.start_bound() {
             Bound::Included(key) | Bound::Excluded(key) => {
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ impl<TSSTable: SSTable> Dictionary<TSSTable> {
             .filter(move |(block_id, _)| block_range.contains(block_id))
             .map(|(_, block_addr)| block_addr)
             .coalesce(move |first, second| {
-                if first.byte_range.end + merge_holes_under >= second.byte_range.start {
+                if first.byte_range.end + merge_holes_under_bytes >= second.byte_range.start {
                     Ok(BlockAddr {
                         first_ordinal: first.first_ordinal,
                         byte_range: first.byte_range.start..second.byte_range.end,
diff --git a/sstable/src/streamer.rs b/sstable/src/streamer.rs
index de727cec4..f0f052c33 100644
--- a/sstable/src/streamer.rs
+++ b/sstable/src/streamer.rs
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ where
 
     async fn delta_reader_async(
         &self,
-        merge_holes_under: usize,
+        merge_holes_under_bytes: usize,
     ) -> io::Result<DeltaReader<TSSTable::ValueReader>> {
         let key_range = (
             bound_as_byte_slice(&self.lower),
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ where
                 key_range,
                 self.limit,
                 &self.automaton,
-                merge_holes_under,
+                merge_holes_under_bytes,
             )
             .await
     }
@@ -142,12 +142,12 @@ where
     }
 
     /// Same as `into_stream_async`, but tries to issue a single io operation when requesting
-    /// blocks that are not consecutive, but also less than `merge_holes_under` bytes appart.
+    /// blocks that are not consecutive, but also less than `merge_holes_under_bytes` bytes appart.
     pub async fn into_stream_async_merging_holes(
         self,
-        merge_holes_under: usize,
+        merge_holes_under_bytes: usize,
     ) -> io::Result<Streamer<'a, TSSTable, A>> {
-        let delta_reader = self.delta_reader_async(merge_holes_under).await?;
+        let delta_reader = self.delta_reader_async(merge_holes_under_bytes).await?;
         self.into_stream_given_delta_reader(delta_reader)
     }