diff --git a/src/mesh.cpp b/src/mesh.cpp
index 6f4fd73274..7e60dc00ec 100644
--- a/src/mesh.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh.cpp
@@ -2132,7 +2132,7 @@ void LibMesh::initialize()
   m_->prepare_for_use();
 
   // ensure that the loaded mesh is 3 dimensional
-  if(m_->spatial_dimension() != n_dimension_) {
+  if(m_->mesh_dimension() != n_dimension_) {
     fatal_error(fmt::format("Mesh file {} specified for use in an unstructured mesh is not a 3D mesh.", filename_));
   }