diff --git a/pandas/core/generic.py b/pandas/core/generic.py
index c95d7cacf8c97..bfb251b0995ec 100644
--- a/pandas/core/generic.py
+++ b/pandas/core/generic.py
@@ -5591,7 +5591,7 @@ def asof(self, where, subset=None):
         NA values, such as None or :attr:`numpy.NaN`, gets mapped to True
         values.
         Everything else gets mapped to False values. Characters such as empty
-        strings `''` or :attr:`numpy.inf` are not considered NA values
+        strings ``''`` or :attr:`numpy.inf` are not considered NA values
         (unless you set ``pandas.options.mode.use_inf_as_na = True``).
 
         Returns
@@ -5653,14 +5653,63 @@ def isnull(self):
         return isna(self).__finalize__(self)
 
     _shared_docs['notna'] = """
-        Return a boolean same-sized object indicating if the values are
-        not NA.
+        Detect existing (non-missing) values.
+
+        Return a boolean same-sized object indicating if the values are not NA.
+        Non-missing values get mapped to True. Characters such as empty
+        strings ``''`` or :attr:`numpy.inf` are not considered NA values
+        (unless you set ``pandas.options.mode.use_inf_as_na = True``).
+        NA values, such as None or :attr:`numpy.NaN`, get mapped to False
+        values.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        %(klass)s
+            Mask of bool values for each element in %(klass)s that
+            indicates whether an element is not an NA value.
 
         See Also
         --------
-        %(klass)s.isna : boolean inverse of notna
         %(klass)s.notnull : alias of notna
+        %(klass)s.isna : boolean inverse of notna
+        %(klass)s.dropna : omit axes labels with missing values
         notna : top-level notna
+
+        Examples
+        --------
+        Show which entries in a DataFrame are not NA.
+
+        >>> df = pd.DataFrame({'age': [5, 6, np.NaN],
+        ...                    'born': [pd.NaT, pd.Timestamp('1939-05-27'),
+        ...                             pd.Timestamp('1940-04-25')],
+        ...                    'name': ['Alfred', 'Batman', ''],
+        ...                    'toy': [None, 'Batmobile', 'Joker']})
+        >>> df
+           age       born    name        toy
+        0  5.0        NaT  Alfred       None
+        1  6.0 1939-05-27  Batman  Batmobile
+        2  NaN 1940-04-25              Joker
+
+        >>> df.notna()
+             age   born  name    toy
+        0   True  False  True  False
+        1   True   True  True   True
+        2  False   True  True   True
+
+        Show which entries in a Series are not NA.
+
+        >>> ser = pd.Series([5, 6, np.NaN])
+        >>> ser
+        0    5.0
+        1    6.0
+        2    NaN
+        dtype: float64
+
+        >>> ser.notna()
+        0     True
+        1     True
+        2    False
+        dtype: bool
         """
 
     @Appender(_shared_docs['notna'] % _shared_doc_kwargs)