diff --git a/Objects/typeobject.c b/Objects/typeobject.c
--- a/Objects/typeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/typeobject.c
@@ -2282,12 +2282,14 @@ type_new(PyTypeObject *metatype, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
     assert(args != NULL && PyTuple_Check(args));
     assert(kwds == NULL || PyDict_Check(kwds));
 
-    /* Special case: type(x) should return x->ob_type */
-    {
+    /* Special case: type(x) should return x->ob_type
+       Issue 27157: we only want type itself to accept the one-argument form
+       we don't call PyType_CheckExact as that also allows subclasses */
+    if (metatype == &PyType_Type) {
         const Py_ssize_t nargs = PyTuple_GET_SIZE(args);
         const Py_ssize_t nkwds = kwds == NULL ? 0 : PyDict_Size(kwds);
 
-        if (PyType_CheckExact(metatype) && nargs == 1 && nkwds == 0) {
+        if (nargs == 1 && nkwds == 0) {
             PyObject *x = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(args, 0);
             Py_INCREF(Py_TYPE(x));
             return (PyObject *) Py_TYPE(x);
@@ -2304,8 +2306,8 @@ type_new(PyTypeObject *metatype, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
     }
 
     /* Check arguments: (name, bases, dict) */
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "UO!O!:type", kwlist,
-                                     &name,
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "UO!O!:type.__new__",
+                                     kwlist, &name,
                                      &PyTuple_Type, &bases,
                                      &PyDict_Type, &orig_dict))
         return NULL;