diff --git a/docs/reference/gdk/gdk4-overrides.txt b/docs/reference/gdk/gdk4-overrides.txt
index 77dd4d07be..4123476674 100644
--- a/docs/reference/gdk/gdk4-overrides.txt
+++ b/docs/reference/gdk/gdk4-overrides.txt
@@ -1,10 +1,4 @@
 
-# GdkAtom is an opaque typedef
-<TYPEDEF>
-<NAME>GdkAtom</NAME>
-typedef struct _GdkAtom *GdkAtom;
-</TYPEDEF>
-
 <MACRO>
 <NAME>GDK_WINDOWING_X11</NAME>
 #define GDK_WINDOWING_X11
diff --git a/gdk/gdktypes.h b/gdk/gdktypes.h
index fefb6c62c4..5b0f6be7cc 100644
--- a/gdk/gdktypes.h
+++ b/gdk/gdktypes.h
@@ -108,14 +108,6 @@ typedef struct _GdkRectangle          GdkRectangle;
 typedef cairo_rectangle_int_t         GdkRectangle;
 #endif
 
-/**
- * GdkAtom:
- *
- * An opaque type representing a string as an index into a table
- * of strings on the X server.
- */
-typedef const char                   *GdkAtom;
-
 /* Forward declarations of commonly used types */
 typedef struct _GdkRGBA               GdkRGBA;
 typedef struct _GdkContentFormats     GdkContentFormats;
diff --git a/testsuite/gdk/encoding.c b/testsuite/gdk/encoding.c
index 1e1a62dca6..0666e26218 100644
--- a/testsuite/gdk/encoding.c
+++ b/testsuite/gdk/encoding.c
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ test_to_text_list (void)
 
   if (GDK_IS_X11_DISPLAY (display))
     {
-      GdkAtom encoding;
+      const char *encoding;
       gint format;
       const guchar *text;
       gint length;