diff --git a/Lib/zipfile.py b/Lib/zipfile.py
index 85bdaa99ae8..2bd1007e2a2 100644
--- a/Lib/zipfile.py
+++ b/Lib/zipfile.py
@@ -13,8 +13,11 @@ import stat
 import shutil
 import struct
 import binascii
-import threading
 
+try:
+    import threading
+except ImportError:
+    import dummy_threading as threading
 
 try:
     import zlib # We may need its compression method
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 41bcd062165..cb02aae2c6a 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #25364: zipfile now works in threads disabled builds.
+
 - Issue #25328: smtpd's SMTPChannel now correctly raises a ValueError if both
   decode_data and enable_SMTPUTF8 are set to true.