""" sys.maxunicode An integer giving the largest supported code point for a Unicode character. The value of this depends on the configuration option that specifies whether Unicode characters are stored as UCS-2 or UCS-4. """ http://docs.python.org/dev/library/sys.html#sys.maxunicode The term "Unicode character" is imprecise. A better term is "Unicode code unit" as used in Data model/Sequences/Strings section. Also "sys.maxunicode" is not hyperlinked in Data model page. http://docs.python.org/dev/reference/datamodel.html#objects-values-and-types