diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index 1167befdc83..735d84b6fa9 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -8729,10 +8729,16 @@ void Tokenizer::findGarbageCode() const
         if (Token::Match(tok, "%num%|%bool%|%char%|%str% %num%|%bool%|%char%|%str%") && !Token::Match(tok, "%str% %str%"))
             syntaxError(tok);
         if (Token::Match(tok, "%num%|%bool%|%char%|%str% {|(")) {
-            if (tok->strAt(1) == "(")
+            if (tok->strAt(1) == "(") {
+                if (tok->isExpandedMacro() && mSettings.userDefines.empty()) {
+                    throw InternalError(tok, "literal used as function. Macro '" + tok->getMacroName() +
+                                        "' expands to '" + tok->str() + +"'. Use -D" + tok->getMacroName() +
+                                        "=... to specify a value, or -U" + tok->getMacroName()
+                                        + " to undefine it.", InternalError::UNKNOWN_MACRO);
+                }
                 syntaxError(tok);
-            else if (!(tok->tokType() == Token::Type::eString && Token::simpleMatch(tok->tokAt(-1), "extern")) &&
-                     !(tok->tokType() == Token::Type::eBoolean && cpp && Token::simpleMatch(tok->tokAt(-1), "requires")))
+            } else if (!(tok->tokType() == Token::Type::eString && Token::simpleMatch(tok->tokAt(-1), "extern")) &&
+                       !(tok->tokType() == Token::Type::eBoolean && cpp && Token::simpleMatch(tok->tokAt(-1), "requires")))
                 syntaxError(tok);
         }
         if (Token::Match(tok, "( ) %num%|%bool%|%char%|%str%"))