diff --git a/prelude/strings.v b/prelude/strings.v
index 3ace24c684a4f86e7943b26625c5d6bdb0f657f3..d935c8ed6bbdcf86c09abb2d8c8f35ab81a92ec6 100644
--- a/prelude/strings.v
+++ b/prelude/strings.v
@@ -2,7 +2,12 @@
 (* This file is distributed under the terms of the BSD license. *)
 From Coq Require Import Ascii.
 From Coq Require Export String.
-From iris.prelude Require Export countable.
+From iris.prelude Require Export list.
+From iris.prelude Require Import countable.
+
+(* To avoid randomly ending up with String.length because this module is
+imported hereditarily somewhere. *)
+Notation length := List.length.
 
 (** * Fix scopes *)
 Open Scope string_scope.