diff --git a/hack/.descriptions_failures b/hack/.descriptions_failures
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d4119314515
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/.descriptions_failures
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/apiserverinternal/v1alpha1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/apps/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/apps/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/apps/v1beta2/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/authentication/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/authentication/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/authorization/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/authorization/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/autoscaling/v2beta2/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/certificates/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/certificates/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/core/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/events/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/events/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/extensions/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/flowcontrol/v1alpha1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/flowcontrol/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/imagepolicy/v1alpha1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/networking/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/networking/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/api/policy/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/apiextensions-apiserver/pkg/apis/apiextensions/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/apiextensions-apiserver/pkg/apis/apiextensions/v1beta1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/kube-aggregator/pkg/apis/apiregistration/v1/types.go
+./staging/src/k8s.io/kube-aggregator/pkg/apis/apiregistration/v1beta1/types.go
diff --git a/hack/verify-description.sh b/hack/verify-description.sh
index 52a86456845..95db1a3d49a 100755
--- a/hack/verify-description.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-description.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ set -o pipefail
 
 KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/..
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
+source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/util.sh"
 
 kube::golang::setup_env
 
@@ -32,7 +33,6 @@ make -C "${KUBE_ROOT}" WHAT=cmd/genswaggertypedocs
 # Find binary
 genswaggertypedocs=$(kube::util::find-binary "genswaggertypedocs")
 
-gen_swagger_result=0
 result=0
 
 find_files() {
@@ -45,25 +45,41 @@ find_files() {
         -o -wholename './target' \
         -o -wholename '*/third_party/*' \
         -o -wholename '*/vendor/*' \
+        -o -wholename './pkg/*' \
       \) -prune \
     \) \
-    \( -wholename '*pkg/apis/*/v*/types.go' \
-       -o -wholename '*pkg/api/unversioned/types.go' \
+    \( -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/api/*/v*/types.go' \
+       -o -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/kube-aggregator/pkg/apis/*/v*/types.go' \
+       -o -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/apiextensions-apiserver/pkg/apis/*/v*/types.go' \
     \)
 }
 
 if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
-  versioned_api_files=$(find_files | grep -E "pkg/.[^/]*/((v.[^/]*)|unversioned)/types\.go") || true
+  versioned_api_files=$(find_files) || true
 else
   versioned_api_files="${*}"
 fi
 
+# find_files had incorrect regexes which led to genswaggertypedocs never being invoked.
+# This led to many types.go have missing descriptions.
+# These types.go files are listed in hack/.descriptions_failures
+# Check that the file is in alphabetical order
+failure_file="${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/.descriptions_failures"
+kube::util::check-file-in-alphabetical-order "${failure_file}"
+
+failing_files=()
+while IFS='' read -r line; do failing_files+=("$line"); done < <(cat "$failure_file")
+
 for file in $versioned_api_files; do
-  $genswaggertypedocs -v -s "${file}" -f - || gen_swagger_result=$?
-  if [[ "${gen_swagger_result}" -ne "0" ]]; then
-    echo "API file: ${file} is missing: ${gen_swagger_result} descriptions"
-    result=1
+  if ! kube::util::array_contains "$file" "${failing_files[@]}"; then
+    gen_swagger_result=0
+    $genswaggertypedocs -v -s "${file}" -f - || gen_swagger_result=$?
+    if [[ "${gen_swagger_result}" -ne 0 ]]; then
+      echo "API file: ${file} is missing: ${gen_swagger_result} descriptions"
+      result=1
+    fi
   fi
+
   if grep json: "${file}" | grep -v // | grep description: ; then
     echo "API file: ${file} should not contain descriptions in struct tags"
     result=1