diff --git a/pkg/eval/builtin_special.go b/pkg/eval/builtin_special.go
index f1f43461..94b6ff9e 100644
--- a/pkg/eval/builtin_special.go
+++ b/pkg/eval/builtin_special.go
@@ -36,9 +36,11 @@ var builtinSpecials map[string]compileBuiltin
 // intended for external consumption, e.g. the syntax highlighter.
 var IsBuiltinSpecial = map[string]bool{}
 
-type noSuchModule struct{ spec string }
+// NoSuchModule encodes an error where a module spec cannot be resolved.
+type NoSuchModule struct{ spec string }
 
-func (err noSuchModule) Error() string { return "no such module: " + err.spec }
+// Error implements the error interface.
+func (err NoSuchModule) Error() string { return "no such module: " + err.spec }
 
 func init() {
 	// Needed to avoid initialization loop
@@ -316,7 +318,12 @@ func (op useOp) exec(fm *Frame) Exception {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// TODO: Add support for module specs relative to a package/workspace.
+// See https://github.com/elves/elvish/issues/1421.
 func use(fm *Frame, spec string, r diag.Ranger) (*Ns, error) {
+	// Handle relative imports. Note that this deliberately does not support Windows backslash as a
+	// path separator because module specs are meant to be platform independent. If necessary, we
+	// translate a module spec to an appropriate path for the platform.
 	if strings.HasPrefix(spec, "./") || strings.HasPrefix(spec, "../") {
 		var dir string
 		if fm.srcMeta.IsFile {
@@ -331,6 +338,8 @@ func use(fm *Frame, spec string, r diag.Ranger) (*Ns, error) {
 		path := filepath.Clean(dir + "/" + spec)
 		return useFromFile(fm, spec, path, r)
 	}
+
+	// Handle imports of pre-defined modules like `builtin` and `str`.
 	if ns, ok := fm.Evaler.modules[spec]; ok {
 		return ns, nil
 	}
@@ -338,16 +347,21 @@ func use(fm *Frame, spec string, r diag.Ranger) (*Ns, error) {
 		return evalModule(fm, spec,
 			parse.Source{Name: "[bundled " + spec + "]", Code: code}, r)
 	}
+
+	// Handle imports relative to the Elvish module search directories.
+	//
 	// TODO: For non-relative imports, use the spec (instead of the full path)
 	// as the module key instead to avoid searching every time.
 	for _, dir := range fm.Evaler.LibDirs {
 		ns, err := useFromFile(fm, spec, filepath.Join(dir, spec), r)
-		if _, isNoSuchModule := err.(noSuchModule); isNoSuchModule {
+		if _, isNoSuchModule := err.(NoSuchModule); isNoSuchModule {
 			continue
 		}
 		return ns, err
 	}
-	return nil, noSuchModule{spec}
+
+	// Sadly, we couldn't resolve the module spec.
+	return nil, NoSuchModule{spec}
 }
 
 // TODO: Make access to fm.Evaler.modules concurrency-safe.
@@ -360,7 +374,7 @@ func useFromFile(fm *Frame, spec, path string, r diag.Ranger) (*Ns, error) {
 		code, err := readFileUTF8(path + ".elv")
 		if err != nil {
 			if os.IsNotExist(err) {
-				return nil, noSuchModule{spec}
+				return nil, NoSuchModule{spec}
 			}
 			return nil, err
 		}
@@ -370,7 +384,7 @@ func useFromFile(fm *Frame, spec, path string, r diag.Ranger) (*Ns, error) {
 
 	plug, err := pluginOpen(path + ".so")
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, noSuchModule{spec}
+		return nil, NoSuchModule{spec}
 	}
 	sym, err := plug.Lookup("Ns")
 	if err != nil {
@@ -378,7 +392,7 @@ func useFromFile(fm *Frame, spec, path string, r diag.Ranger) (*Ns, error) {
 	}
 	ns, ok := sym.(**Ns)
 	if !ok {
-		return nil, noSuchModule{spec}
+		return nil, NoSuchModule{spec}
 	}
 	fm.Evaler.modules[path] = *ns
 	return *ns, nil
diff --git a/pkg/eval/builtin_special_test.go b/pkg/eval/builtin_special_test.go
index fe1b47a5..8981167f 100644
--- a/pkg/eval/builtin_special_test.go
+++ b/pkg/eval/builtin_special_test.go
@@ -349,13 +349,11 @@ func TestUse_SupportsCircularDependency(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestUse(t *testing.T) {
 	libdir1 := InTempDir(t)
-
 	ApplyDir(Dir{
 		"shadow.elv": "put lib1",
 	})
 
 	libdir2 := InTempDir(t)
-
 	ApplyDir(Dir{
 		"has-init.elv": "put has-init",
 		"put-x.elv":    "put $x",
@@ -410,7 +408,10 @@ func TestUse(t *testing.T) {
 		// modules
 		That("x = foo; use put-x").Throws(AnyError),
 
-		// TODO: Test module namespace
+		// Using an unknown module spec fails.
+		That("use unknown").Throws(ErrorWithType(NoSuchModule{})),
+		That("use ./unknown").Throws(ErrorWithType(NoSuchModule{})),
+		That("use ../unknown").Throws(ErrorWithType(NoSuchModule{})),
 
 		// Nonexistent module
 		That("use non-existent").Throws(ErrorWithMessage("no such module: non-existent")),
diff --git a/website/ref/language.md b/website/ref/language.md
index 5bbcbe44..8bff519c 100644
--- a/website/ref/language.md
+++ b/website/ref/language.md
@@ -169,10 +169,11 @@ writes out `\*`.
 A string is a (possibly empty) sequence of bytes.
 
 [Single-quoted string literals](#single-quoted-string),
-[double-quoted string literals](#double-quoted-string)and [barewords](#bareword)
-all evaluate to string values. Unless otherwise noted, different syntaxes of
-string literals are equivalent in the code. For instance, `xyz`, `'xyz'` and
-`"xyz"` are different syntaxes for the same string with content `xyz`.
+[double-quoted string literals](#double-quoted-string) and
+[barewords](#bareword) all evaluate to string values. Unless otherwise noted,
+different syntaxes of string literals are equivalent in the code. For instance,
+`xyz`, `'xyz'` and `"xyz"` are different syntaxes for the same string with
+content `xyz`.
 
 Strings that contain UTF-8 encoded text can be [indexed](#indexing) with a
 **byte index** where a codepoint starts, which results in the codepoint that
@@ -2392,18 +2393,34 @@ itself or defined by the user.
 
 ### Importing modules with `use`
 
-Modules are imported using the `use` special command, which accepts a **module
-spec** and an optional alias:
+Modules are imported using the `use` special command. It requires a **module
+spec** and allows a namespace alias:
 
 ```elvish
 use $spec $alias?
 ```
 
-Both the module spec and the alias must appear as a single string literal.
+The module spec and the alias must both be a simple [string literal](#string).
+[Compound strings](#compounding) such as `'a'/b` are not allowed.
 
-The module spec specifies which module to import, and the alias, if given,
-specifies the namespace to import the module under. By default, the namespace is
-derived from the module spec, by taking the part after the last slash.
+The module spec specifies which module to import. The alias, if given, specifies
+the namespace to import the module under. By default, the namespace is derived
+from the module spec by taking the part after the last slash.
+
+Module specs fall into three categories that are resolved in the following
+order:
+
+1. **Relative**: These are [relative](#relative-imports) to the file containing
+   the `use` command.
+
+1. **User defined**: These match a [user defined module](#user-defined-modules)
+   in a [module search directory](#module-search-directories).
+
+1. **Pre-defined**: These match the name of a
+   [pre-defined module](#pre-defined-modules), such as `math` or `str`.
+
+If a module spec doesn't match any of the above a "no such module"
+[exception](#exception) is raised.
 
 Examples:
 
@@ -2525,10 +2542,10 @@ functions.
 
 ### Relative imports
 
-The module spec may being with `./` or `../`, which introduce **relative
-imports**. When `use` is invoked from a file, this will import the file relative
-to the location of the file. When `use` is invoked at the interactive prompt,
-this will import the file relative to the current working directory.
+The module spec may begin with `./` or `../` to introduce a **relative import**.
+When `use` is invoked from a file this will import the file relative to the
+location of the file. When `use` is invoked from an interactive prompt, this
+will import the file relative to the current working directory.
 
 ### Scoping of imports