diff --git a/Lib/sre_constants.py b/Lib/sre_constants.py
index 71ccb23f621..5898d5411a9 100644
--- a/Lib/sre_constants.py
+++ b/Lib/sre_constants.py
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
 
 MAGIC = 20031017
 
+from _sre import MAXREPEAT
+
 # SRE standard exception (access as sre.error)
 # should this really be here?