diff -r 0238cc842805 -r 527b55110fa4 Doc/library/abc.rst
--- a/Doc/library/abc.rst	Thu Dec 06 17:49:58 2012 -0500
+++ b/Doc/library/abc.rst	Fri Dec 07 13:30:17 2012 +0100
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
 --------------
 
 This module provides the infrastructure for defining :term:`abstract base
-classes <abstract base class>` (ABCs) in Python, as outlined in :pep:`3119`; see the PEP for why this
-was added to Python. (See also :pep:`3141` and the :mod:`numbers` module
-regarding a type hierarchy for numbers based on ABCs.)
+classes <abstract base class>` (ABCs) in Python, as outlined in :pep:`3119`;
+see the PEP for why this was added to Python. (See also :pep:`3141` and the
+:mod:`numbers` module regarding a type hierarchy for numbers based on ABCs.)
 
 The :mod:`collections` module has some concrete classes that derive from
 ABCs; these can, of course, be further derived. In addition the
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 hashable or a mapping.
 
 
-This module provides the following class:
+This module provides the following classes:
 
 .. class:: ABCMeta
 
@@ -127,6 +127,16 @@
    available as a method of ``Foo``, so it is provided separately.
 
 
+.. class:: ABC
+
+   A helper class that has :class:`ABCMeta` as metaclass. :class:`ABC` is the
+   standard class to inherit from in order to create an abstract base class,
+   avoiding sometimes confusing metaclass usage.
+
+   Note that :class:`ABC` type is still :class:`ABCMeta`, therefore inheriting
+   from :class:`ABC` requires usual precautions regarding metaclasses usage
+   as multiple inheritance may lead to metaclass conflicts.
+
 The :mod:`abc` module also provides the following decorators:
 
 .. decorator:: abstractmethod(function)
diff -r 0238cc842805 -r 527b55110fa4 Lib/abc.py
--- a/Lib/abc.py	Thu Dec 06 17:49:58 2012 -0500
+++ b/Lib/abc.py	Fri Dec 07 13:30:17 2012 +0100
@@ -226,3 +226,10 @@
         # No dice; update negative cache
         cls._abc_negative_cache.add(subclass)
         return False
+
+class ABC(metaclass=ABCMeta):
+    """Helper class that provides a standard way to create an ABC using
+    inheritance.
+    """
+    pass
+
diff -r 0238cc842805 -r 527b55110fa4 Lib/test/test_abc.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_abc.py	Thu Dec 06 17:49:58 2012 -0500
+++ b/Lib/test/test_abc.py	Fri Dec 07 13:30:17 2012 +0100
@@ -96,6 +96,19 @@
 
 class TestABC(unittest.TestCase):
 
+    def test_ABC_helper(self):
+        # create an ABC using the helper class and perform basic checks
+        class C(abc.ABC):
+            @classmethod
+            @abc.abstractmethod
+            def foo(cls): return cls.__name__
+        self.assertEqual(type(C), abc.ABCMeta)
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, C)
+        class D(C):
+            @classmethod
+            def foo(cls): return super().foo()
+        self.assertEqual(D.foo(), 'D')
+
     def test_abstractmethod_basics(self):
         @abc.abstractmethod
         def foo(self): pass