In Python, you can easily modify all standard variables that are available in the global namespace: >>> print = 42 >>> print(42) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> TypeError: 'int' object is not callable That may be helpful if your module defines some functions that have the same name as built-in ones. That also happens if you practice metaprogramming and you accept an arbitrary string as an identifier. However, even if you shadow some built-in names, you still may want to have access to things they initially referred to. The builtins module exists exactly for that: >>> import builtins >>> print = 42 >>> builtins.print(1) 1 The __builtins__ variable is also available in most modules. There is a catch though. First, this is a cpython implementation detail and usually should not be used at all. Second, __builtins__ might refer to either builtins or builtins.__dict__, depending on how exactly the current module was loaded.