diff --git a/base/show.jl b/base/show.jl
index 2a5123d99980c..39ea8daf3037e 100644
--- a/base/show.jl
+++ b/base/show.jl
@@ -1108,17 +1108,21 @@ function show_nd(io::IO, a::AbstractArray, limit, print_matrix, label_slices)
     cartesianmap(print_slice, tail)
 end
 
-function whos(m::Module, pattern::Regex)
+function whos(m::Module, pattern::Regex; filter=Module)
+    filtertypes = applicable(start, filter) ?
+        filter :
+        [filter]
     for v in sort(names(m))
         s = string(v)
-        if isdefined(m,v) && ismatch(pattern, s)
+        if ( ! (typeof(eval(m,v)) in filtertypes) &&
+                isdefined(m,v) && ismatch(pattern, s))
             println(rpad(s, 30), summary(eval(m,v)))
         end
     end
 end
-whos() = whos(r"")
-whos(m::Module) = whos(m, r"")
-whos(pat::Regex) = whos(current_module(), pat)
+whos(;filter=Module) = whos(r""; filter=filter)
+whos(m::Module; filter=Module) = whos(m, r""; filter=filter)
+whos(pat::Regex; filter=Module) = whos(current_module(), pat; filter=filter)
 
 # global flag for limiting output
 # TODO: this should be replaced with a better mechanism. currently it is only
diff --git a/doc/stdlib/base.rst b/doc/stdlib/base.rst
index 2fb84e8db8cd8..3260c5101901e 100644
--- a/doc/stdlib/base.rst
+++ b/doc/stdlib/base.rst
@@ -36,10 +36,12 @@ Getting Around
 
    Determine whether Julia is running an interactive session.
 
-.. function:: whos([Module,] [pattern::Regex])
+.. function:: whos([Module,] [pattern::Regex]; [filter=Module])
 
    Print information about exported global variables in a module, optionally restricted
-   to those matching ``pattern``.
+   to those matching ``pattern``. The ``filter`` keyword is either a single type or
+   iterable object of types that will not be displayed. By default, only imported
+   submodules are filtered out.
 
 .. function:: edit(file::AbstractString, [line])