diff --git a/website/source/intro/getting-started/variables.html.md b/website/source/intro/getting-started/variables.html.md
index 7f7193b27..1a1f022a8 100644
--- a/website/source/intro/getting-started/variables.html.md
+++ b/website/source/intro/getting-started/variables.html.md
@@ -56,7 +56,8 @@ the AWS provider with the given variables.
## Assigning Variables
There are multiple ways to assign variables. Below is also the order
-in which variable values are chosen. The following is the descending order of precedence in which variables are considered.
+in which variable values are chosen. The following is the descending order
+of precedence in which variables are considered.
#### Command-line flags
@@ -109,6 +110,8 @@ $ terraform plan \
-var-file="secret.tfvars" \
-var-file="production.tfvars"
```
+-> **Note**: Environment variables can only populate string-type variables.
+List and map type variables must be populated via one of the other mechanisms.
#### UI Input
@@ -126,6 +129,23 @@ If no value is assigned to a variable via any of these methods and the
variable has a `default` key in its declaration, that value will be used
for the variable.
+
+## Lists
+
+Lists are defined either explicitly or implicity
+```
+# implicitly by using brackets [...]
+variable "cidrs" { default = [] }
+
+# explicitly
+variable "cidrs" { type = "list" }
+```
+
+You can specify lists in a `terraform.tfvars` file:
+```
+cidrs = [ "10.0.0.0/16", "10.1.0.0/16" ]
+```
+
## Maps