diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index ea9fa8c25055c4fc80c9b6a80c5f25489c1ed530..df93b50c24382dbe81744c20e28a177a09c49952 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -250,14 +250,14 @@ if(ENABLE_OPENMP)
   endif(OPENMP_FOUND)
 endif(ENABLE_OPENMP)
 
-if(CXX11)
+if(ENABLE_CXX11)
   # in recent cmake versions we could do e.g. set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
   check_cxx_compiler_flag("-std=c++11" STDCXX11)
   if(STDCXX11)
     set_config_option(HAVE_CXX11 "C++11")
     set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
   endif(STDCXX11)
-endif(CXX11)
+endif(ENABLE_CXX11)
 
 macro(append_gmsh_src DIRNAME FILES)
   foreach(FILE ${FILES})