diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index e54c6e2f32f6..e9664959b129 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -1004,11 +1004,15 @@ available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
 
 .. function:: repr(object)
 
-   Return a string containing a printable representation of an object. This is the
-   same value yielded by conversions (reverse quotes). It is sometimes useful to be
-   able to access this operation as an ordinary function.  For many types, this
-   function makes an attempt to return a string that would yield an object with the
-   same value when passed to :func:`eval`.
+   Return a string containing a printable representation of an object.  This is
+   the same value yielded by conversions (reverse quotes).  It is sometimes
+   useful to be able to access this operation as an ordinary function.  For many
+   types, this function makes an attempt to return a string that would yield an
+   object with the same value when passed to :func:`eval`, otherwise the
+   representation is a string enclosed in angle brackets that contains the name
+   of the type of the object together with additional information often
+   including the name and address of the object.  A class can control what this
+   function returns for its instances by defining a :meth:`__repr__` method.
 
 
 .. function:: reversed(seq)