doc: update description of global

With widespread support for ES modules, the description of global is
outdated now.

PR-URL: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/47969
Reviewed-By: Debadree Chatterjee <debadree333@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com>

1 files changed, 8 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/doc/api/globals.md b/doc/api/globals.md
index dec10a5a4e..28aa352611 100644
--- a/doc/api/globals.md
+++ b/doc/api/globals.md
@@ -513,10 +513,12 @@ added: v0.1.27
 
 * {Object} The global namespace object.
 
-In browsers, the top-level scope is the global scope. This means that
-within the browser `var something` will define a new global variable. In
-Node.js this is different. The top-level scope is not the global scope;
-`var something` inside a Node.js module will be local to that module.
+In browsers, the top-level scope has traditionally been the global scope. This
+means that `var something` will define a new global variable, except within
+ECMAScript modules. In Node.js, this is different. The top-level scope is not
+the global scope; `var something` inside a Node.js module will be local to that
+module, regardless of whether it is a [CommonJS module][] or an
+[ECMAScript module][].
 
 ## Class `Headers`
 
@@ -982,6 +984,8 @@ added: v18.0.0
 
 A browser-compatible implementation of [`WritableStreamDefaultWriter`][].
 
+[CommonJS module]: modules.md
+[ECMAScript module]: esm.md
 [Web Crypto API]: webcrypto.md
 [`--no-experimental-fetch`]: cli.md#--no-experimental-fetch
 [`--no-experimental-global-customevent`]: cli.md#--no-experimental-global-customevent