diff --git a/gio/completion/gsettings b/gio/completion/gsettings
index bfa7a4bbc..bf6964f5e 100644
--- a/gio/completion/gsettings
+++ b/gio/completion/gsettings
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ __gsettings() {
 
   local IFS=$'\n'
   # shellcheck disable=SC2207
-  COMPREPLY=($(compgen -W "${choices}" -- "${COMP_WORDS[${COMP_CWORD}]}"))
+  COMPREPLY=($(compgen -W "${choices-}" -- "${COMP_WORDS[${COMP_CWORD}]}"))
 }
 
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