diff --git a/Doc/library/tempfile.rst b/Doc/library/tempfile.rst
index 01092fc..af72df4 100644
--- a/Doc/library/tempfile.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/tempfile.rst
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 
 Also, all the user-callable functions now take additional arguments which
 allow direct control over the location and name of temporary files.  It is
-no longer necessary to use the global *tempdir* and *template* variables.
+no longer necessary to use the global *tempdir* variable.
 To maintain backward compatibility, the argument order is somewhat odd; it
 is recommended to use keyword arguments for clarity.
 
diff --git a/Lib/tempfile.py b/Lib/tempfile.py
index b28d91f..b7439a2 100644
--- a/Lib/tempfile.py
+++ b/Lib/tempfile.py
@@ -10,8 +10,6 @@
 
   TMP_MAX  - maximum number of names that will be tried before
              giving up.
-  template - the default prefix for all temporary names.
-             You may change this to control the default prefix.
   tempdir  - If this is set to a string before the first use of
              any routine from this module, it will be considered as
              another candidate location to store temporary files.
@@ -74,6 +72,8 @@
 else:
     TMP_MAX = 10000
 
+# Although it does not have an underscore for historical reasons, this
+# variable is an internal implementation detail (see issue 10354).
 template = "tmp"
 
 # Internal routines.