diff --git a/Doc/library/tempfile.rst b/Doc/library/tempfile.rst
index 0793e43df01..fff7a7a03eb 100644
--- a/Doc/library/tempfile.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/tempfile.rst
@@ -191,6 +191,9 @@ The module defines the following user-callable items:
       *suffix* and *prefix* now accept and default to ``None`` to cause
       an appropriate default value to be used.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
+      The *dir* parameter now accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
+
 
 .. function:: mkdtemp(suffix=None, prefix=None, dir=None)
 
@@ -214,6 +217,9 @@ The module defines the following user-callable items:
       *suffix* and *prefix* now accept and default to ``None`` to cause
       an appropriate default value to be used.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
+      The *dir* parameter now accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
+
 
 .. function:: gettempdir()
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_tempfile.py b/Lib/test/test_tempfile.py
index bd4db839331..f995f6c9bfa 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_tempfile.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tempfile.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import errno
 import io
 import os
+import pathlib
 import signal
 import sys
 import re
@@ -56,6 +57,9 @@ def test_infer_return_type_multiples_and_none(self):
         with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
             tempfile._infer_return_type(b'', None, '')
 
+    def test_infer_return_type_pathlib(self):
+        self.assertIs(str, tempfile._infer_return_type(pathlib.Path('/')))
+
 
 # Common functionality.
 
@@ -79,8 +83,13 @@ def nameCheck(self, name, dir, pre, suf):
         nsuf  = nbase[len(nbase)-len(suf):]
 
         if dir is not None:
-            self.assertIs(type(name), str if type(dir) is str else bytes,
-                          "unexpected return type")
+            self.assertIs(
+                type(name),
+                str
+                if type(dir) is str or isinstance(dir, os.PathLike) else
+                bytes,
+                "unexpected return type",
+            )
         if pre is not None:
             self.assertIs(type(name), str if type(pre) is str else bytes,
                           "unexpected return type")
@@ -425,6 +434,7 @@ def test_choose_directory(self):
         dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
         try:
             self.do_create(dir=dir).write(b"blat")
+            self.do_create(dir=pathlib.Path(dir)).write(b"blat")
         finally:
             os.rmdir(dir)
 
@@ -659,6 +669,7 @@ def test_choose_directory(self):
         dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
         try:
             self.do_create(dir=dir)
+            self.do_create(dir=pathlib.Path(dir))
         finally:
             os.rmdir(dir)
 
@@ -728,6 +739,7 @@ def test_choose_directory(self):
         dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
         try:
             os.rmdir(self.do_create(dir=dir))
+            os.rmdir(self.do_create(dir=pathlib.Path(dir)))
         finally:
             os.rmdir(dir)
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2019-01-21-14-30-59.bpo-35803.yae6Lq.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2019-01-21-14-30-59.bpo-35803.yae6Lq.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b8394560e54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2019-01-21-14-30-59.bpo-35803.yae6Lq.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Document and test that ``tempfile`` functions may accept a
+:term:`path-like object` for the ``dir`` argument.  Patch by Anthony Sottile.