diff --git a/lib/parse.js b/lib/parse.js
index 7cca8842..8db3a5f8 100644
--- a/lib/parse.js
+++ b/lib/parse.js
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ var normalizeParseOptions = function normalizeParseOptions(opts) {
     }
 
     if (typeof opts.charset !== 'undefined' && opts.charset !== 'utf-8' && opts.charset !== 'iso-8859-1') {
-        throw new Error('The charset option must be either utf-8, iso-8859-1, or undefined');
+        throw new TypeError('The charset option must be either utf-8, iso-8859-1, or undefined');
     }
     var charset = typeof opts.charset === 'undefined' ? defaults.charset : opts.charset;