diff --git a/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp b/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp
index e02d57875e..375c0ab9bb 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/include/opencv2/imgproc.hpp
@@ -3876,6 +3876,18 @@ used for images only.
 @note Only applicable to contour moments calculations from Python bindings: Note that the numpy
 type for the input array should be either np.int32 or np.float32.
 
+@note For contour-based moments, the zeroth-order moment \c m00 represents
+the contour area.
+
+If the input contour is degenerate (for example, a single point or all points
+are collinear), the area is zero and therefore \c m00 == 0.
+
+In this case, the centroid coordinates (\c m10/m00, \c m01/m00) are undefined
+and must be handled explicitly by the caller.
+
+A common workaround is to compute the center using cv::boundingRect() or by
+averaging the input points.
+
 @sa  contourArea, arcLength
  */
 CV_EXPORTS_W Moments moments( InputArray array, bool binaryImage = false );
diff --git a/modules/imgproc/test/test_contours.cpp b/modules/imgproc/test/test_contours.cpp
index 5fb88dce32..9e76cfabb2 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/test/test_contours.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/test/test_contours.cpp
@@ -593,5 +593,20 @@ TEST(Imgproc_PointPolygonTest, regression_10222)
     EXPECT_GT(result, 0) << "Desired result: point is inside polygon - actual result: point is not inside polygon";
 }
 
+TEST(Imgproc_Moments, degenerateContours)
+{
+    std::vector<cv::Point> c1;
+    c1.push_back(cv::Point(10,10));
+    cv::Moments m1 = cv::moments(c1, false);
+    EXPECT_EQ(m1.m00, 0);
+
+    std::vector<cv::Point> c2;
+    c2.push_back(cv::Point(0,0));
+    c2.push_back(cv::Point(5,5));
+    c2.push_back(cv::Point(10,10));
+    cv::Moments m2 = cv::moments(c2, false);
+    EXPECT_EQ(m2.m00, 0);
+}
+
 }} // namespace
 /* End of file. */