diff --git a/Lib/rlcompleter.py b/Lib/rlcompleter.py
index dab0cb9eaa3..a2d5fe6a8f0 100644
--- a/Lib/rlcompleter.py
+++ b/Lib/rlcompleter.py
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ class Completer:
         import re
         m = re.match(r"(\w+(\.\w+)*)\.(\w*)", text)
         if not m:
-            return
+            return []
         expr, attr = m.group(1, 3)
         object = eval(expr, self.namespace)
         words = dir(object)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 6af11b1475a..43bc504b826 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ Core and builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Bug #2220: handle rlcompleter attribute match failure more gracefully.
+
 - Bug #1725737: In distutil's sdist, exclude RCS, CVS etc. also in the
   root directory, and also exclude .hg, .git, .bzr, and _darcs.