There are many special names used in Python core and the stdlib, but absent in the documentation index [1]. If you see names that are defined or used in the module or area maintained by you, please add references to these names to the index and document them if it is needed. Repeat the lists here. Module level names used in pydoc: __author__ __credits__ __date__ __version__ Module level name used in doctest: __test__ Other module level names: __about__ (heapq only) __copyright__ (many modules) __cvsid__ (tarfile only) __docformat__ (doctest only) __email__ (test_with and test_keywordonlyarg only) __libmpdec_version__ (decimal only) __status__ (logging only) type attributes (mostly used in tests): __abstractmethods__ (used in abc, functools) __base__ __basicsize__ __dictoffset__ __flags__ (used in inspect, copyreg) __itemsize__ __weakrefoffset__ super() attributes: __self_class__ __thisclass__ Used in sqlite: __adapt__ __conform__ Used in ctypes: __ctype_be__ __ctype_le__ __ctypes_from_outparam__ Used in unittest: __unittest_expecting_failure__ __unittest_skip__ __unittest_skip_why__ float methods, for testing: __getformat__ __setformat__ Used in IDLE RPC: __attributes__ __methods__ Others: __alloc__ (bytearray method) __args__ (used in bdb) __build_class__ (builtins function, used in eval loop) __builtins__ (module attribute) __decimal_context__ (used in decimal) __exception__ (used in pdb) __getinitargs__ (used in pickle, datetime) __initializing__ (used in importlib) __isabstractmethod__ (function/method/descriptor attribute, used in abc, functools, types) __ltrace__ (used in eval loop, never set) __members__ (Enum attribute, used in many modules) __mp_main__ (used in multiprocessing) __new_member__ (Enum attribute, used in enum internally) __newobj__ (copyreg function, used in pickle, object.__reduce_ex__) __newobj_ex__ (copyreg function, used in pickle, object.__reduce_ex__) __objclass__ (descriptor/enum attribute, used in inspect, pydoc, doctest, multiprocessing) __prepare__ (metaclass method, used in builtins.__build_class__, types) __pycache__ (cache directory name) __return__ (used in pdb) __signature__ (used in inspect, never set) __sizeof__ (standard method, used in sys.getsizeof) __slotnames__ (used in object.__getstate__ for caching) __text_signature__ (function/method/descriptor attribute, used in inspect) __trunc__ (used in math.trunc, int, etc) __warningregistry__ (used in warnings) __weakref__ (used in weakref) __wrapped__ (used in inspect, functools, contextlib, asyncio) [1] http://bugs.python.org/issue23639