diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.td b/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.td
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.td
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.td
@@ -17,22 +17,23 @@
     as initial tensor values for the results of the operation or the output
     buffers to which the results of the op will be written.
 
-    Output operands must be tensors or memrefs. Input operands can have any
-    type. All non-output operands are inputs.
+    Output operands must be ranked tensors or ranked memrefs. Input operands can
+    have any type. All non-output operands are inputs.
 
     It is assumed that the output operands of the op are the operands at
     position [start, end). The positions are defined by getOutputsPositionRange
     method. All non-output operands are "inputs" of the DPS op.
 
     If the op has "tensor semantics", then the input operands are either scalars
-    or tensors. The output operands are tensors and every tensor output is tied
-    to a corresponding tensor OpResult in a 1-to-1 fashion. The i-th output
-    tensor is tied to the i-th OpResult. The op may not have any additional
-    OpResults. Output operands and their tied OpResults have the same type.
+    or ranked tensors. The output operands are ranked tensors and every tensor
+    output is tied to a corresponding tensor OpResult in a 1-to-1 fashion.
+    The i-th output tensor is tied to the i-th OpResult. The op may not have any
+    additional OpResults. Output operands and their tied OpResults have the same
+    type.
 
-    If the op has "buffer semantics", then the input operands are either memrefs
-    or other non-tensor types, e.g. scalar types. Furthermore, the output
-    operands are memrefs and the op has no results.
+    If the op has "buffer semantics", then the input operands are either ranked
+    memrefs or other non-tensor types, e.g. scalar types. Furthermore, the
+    output operands are ranked memrefs and the op has no results.
 
     Destination-passing style abstraction makes certain transformations easier.
     For example, tiling implementation can extract/insert slices from/into the
@@ -234,7 +235,7 @@
     // Other interface methods.
     //===------------------------------------------------------------------===//
     InterfaceMethod<
-      /*desc=*/"Return whether the op has only MemRef input and outputs.",
+      /*desc=*/"Return whether the op has only ranked MemRef inputs/outputs.",
       /*retTy=*/"bool",
       /*methodName=*/"hasBufferSemantics",
       /*args=*/(ins),
@@ -249,7 +250,7 @@
       }]
     >,
     InterfaceMethod<
-      /*desc=*/"Return whether the op has only RankedTensor input and outputs.",
+      /*desc=*/"Return whether the op has only ranked tensor inputs/outputs.",
       /*retTy=*/"bool",
       /*methodName=*/"hasTensorSemantics",
       /*args=*/(ins),
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.cpp b/mlir/lib/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Interfaces/DestinationStyleOpInterface.cpp
@@ -29,10 +29,15 @@
   SmallVector<OpOperand *> outputBufferOperands, outputTensorOperands;
   for (OpOperand *operand : dstStyleOp.getOutputOperands()) {
     Type type = operand->get().getType();
-    if (type.isa<MemRefType>())
+    if (type.isa<MemRefType>()) {
       outputBufferOperands.push_back(operand);
-    if (type.isa<RankedTensorType>())
+    } else if (type.isa<RankedTensorType>()) {
       outputTensorOperands.push_back(operand);
+    } else {
+      return op->emitOpError("expected that operand #")
+             << operand->getOperandNumber()
+             << " is a ranked tensor or a ranked memref";
+    }
   }
 
   // Expect at least one output operand.