diff --git a/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt b/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
index 9701c1e5fdd5a0..76359baf26d3da 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
@@ -28,6 +28,19 @@ Finally, the list of matching commits is shown in the order of the
 second commit range, with unmatched commits being inserted just after
 all of their ancestors have been shown.
 
+There are three ways to specify the commit ranges:
+
+- `<range1> <range2>`: Either commit range can be of the form
+  `<base>..<rev>`, `<rev>^!` or `<rev>^-<n>`. See `SPECIFYING RANGES`
+  in linkgit:gitrevisions[7] for more details.
+
+- `<rev1>...<rev2>`. This resembles the symmetric ranges mentioned in
+  the `SPECIFYING RANGES` section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7], and is
+  equivalent to `<base>..<rev1> <base>..<rev2>` where `<base>` is the
+  merge base as obtained via `git merge-base <rev1> <rev2>`.
+
+- `<base> <rev1> <rev2>`: This is equivalent to `<base>..<rev1>
+  <base>..<rev2>`.
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
diff --git a/builtin/range-diff.c b/builtin/range-diff.c
index 24c4162f7446ce..6097635c4326eb 100644
--- a/builtin/range-diff.c
+++ b/builtin/range-diff.c
@@ -11,6 +11,30 @@ N_("git range-diff [<options>] <base> <old-tip> <new-tip>"),
 NULL
 };
 
+static int is_range(const char *range)
+{
+	size_t i;
+	char c;
+
+	if (strstr(range, ".."))
+		return 1;
+
+	i = strlen(range);
+	c = i ? range[--i] : 0;
+	if (c == '!')
+		i--; /* might be ...^! or ...^@ */
+	else if (isdigit(c)) {
+		/* handle ...^-<n> */
+		while (i > 2 && isdigit(range[--i]))
+			; /* keep trimming trailing digits */
+		if (i < 2 || range[i--] != '-')
+			return 0;
+	} else
+		return 0;
+
+	return i > 0 && range[i] == '^';
+}
+
 int cmd_range_diff(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 {
 	int creation_factor = RANGE_DIFF_CREATION_FACTOR_DEFAULT;
@@ -46,12 +70,12 @@ int cmd_range_diff(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		diffopt.use_color = 1;
 
 	if (argc == 2) {
-		if (!strstr(argv[0], ".."))
-			die(_("no .. in range: '%s'"), argv[0]);
+		if (!is_range(argv[0]))
+			die(_("not a commit range: '%s'"), argv[0]);
 		strbuf_addstr(&range1, argv[0]);
 
-		if (!strstr(argv[1], ".."))
-			die(_("no .. in range: '%s'"), argv[1]);
+		if (!is_range(argv[1]))
+			die(_("not a commit range: '%s'"), argv[1]);
 		strbuf_addstr(&range2, argv[1]);
 	} else if (argc == 3) {
 		strbuf_addf(&range1, "%s..%s", argv[0], argv[1]);
diff --git a/t/t3206-range-diff.sh b/t/t3206-range-diff.sh
index ce24b5d735abc2..86d4cd627bba77 100755
--- a/t/t3206-range-diff.sh
+++ b/t/t3206-range-diff.sh
@@ -153,6 +153,14 @@ test_expect_success 'simple A B C (unmodified)' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'A^! and A^-<n> (unmodified)' '
+	git range-diff --no-color topic^! unmodified^-1 >actual &&
+	cat >expect <<-EOF &&
+	1:  $(test_oid t4) = 1:  $(test_oid u4) s/12/B/
+	EOF
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'trivial reordering' '
 	git range-diff --no-color main topic reordered >actual &&
 	cat >expect <<-EOF &&