diff --git a/Modules/socketmodule.c b/Modules/socketmodule.c
index 99e5b62..cba261e 100644
--- a/Modules/socketmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/socketmodule.c
@@ -523,7 +523,7 @@
 
 /* Initialize a new socket object. */
 
-static float defaulttimeout = -1.0; /* Default timeout for new sockets */
+static double defaulttimeout = -1.0; /* Default timeout for new sockets */
 
 static void
 init_sockobject(PySocketSockObject *s,