diff --git a/src/Makevars b/src/Makevars
index a734a5c..4bf200b 100644
--- a/src/Makevars
+++ b/src/Makevars
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 PKG_CPPFLAGS = -I../inst/include/
 PKG_CXXFLAGS = -DNO_MANUAL_VECTORIZATION -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS
-CXX_STD = CXX17
 
 # Uncomment this flag (and comment out the PKG_CPPFLAGS line above if you
 # want the default HNSW behavior (faster, but non-portable)