diff --git a/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_modules_documenting.rst b/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_modules_documenting.rst
index 539b539d39..c758bf7044 100644
--- a/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_modules_documenting.rst
+++ b/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_modules_documenting.rst
@@ -235,6 +235,9 @@ The following fields can be used and are all required unless specified otherwise
     Data type
   :sample:
     One or more examples.
+  :version_added:
+    Only needed if this return was extended after initial Ansible release, i.e. this is greater than the top level `version_added` field.
+    This is a string, and not a float, i.e. ``version_added: "2.3"``.
   :contains:
     Optional, if you set `type: complex` you can detail the dictionary here by repeating the above elements.
 
@@ -249,6 +252,9 @@ The following fields can be used and are all required unless specified otherwise
         Data type
       :sample:
         One or more examples.
+      :version_added:
+        Only needed if this return was extended after initial Ansible release, i.e. this is greater than the top level `version_added` field.
+        This is a string, and not a float, i.e. ``version_added: "2.3"``.
 
 
 For complex nested returns type can be specified as ``type: complex``.
diff --git a/test/sanity/validate-modules/schema.py b/test/sanity/validate-modules/schema.py
index 42ce90c45b..f023d57451 100644
--- a/test/sanity/validate-modules/schema.py
+++ b/test/sanity/validate-modules/schema.py
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ def return_schema(data):
         Required('description'): Any(list, *string_types),
         Required('returned'): Any(*string_types),
         Required('type'): Any('string', 'list', 'boolean', 'dict', 'complex', 'bool', 'float', 'int', 'dictionary', 'str'),
+        'version_added': Any(float, *string_types),
         'sample': Any(None, list, dict, int, float, *string_types),
         'example': Any(None, list, dict, int, float, *string_types)
     }