diff --git a/lib/repl.js b/lib/repl.js
index b58cf499cda226..387e3b5446f678 100644
--- a/lib/repl.js
+++ b/lib/repl.js
@@ -1154,6 +1154,11 @@ REPLServer.prototype.convertToContext = function(cmd) {
   return cmd;
 };
 
+function bailOnIllegalToken(parser) {
+  return parser._literal === null &&
+         !parser.blockComment &&
+         !parser.regExpLiteral;
+}
 
 // If the error is that we've unexpectedly ended the input,
 // then let the user try to recover by adding more input.
@@ -1166,9 +1171,16 @@ function isRecoverableError(e, self) {
       return true;
     }
 
-    return message.startsWith('Unexpected end of input') ||
-      message.startsWith('Unexpected token') ||
-      message.startsWith('missing ) after argument list');
+    if (message.startsWith('Unexpected end of input') ||
+        message.startsWith('missing ) after argument list'))
+      return true;
+
+    if (message.startsWith('Unexpected token')) {
+      if (message.includes('ILLEGAL') && bailOnIllegalToken(self.lineParser))
+        return false;
+      else
+        return true;
+    }
   }
   return false;
 }
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-repl.js b/test/parallel/test-repl.js
index 2ec996897a1cae..fe4bcd32deda12 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-repl.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-repl.js
@@ -324,6 +324,10 @@ function error_test() {
             'undefined\n' + prompt_unix },
     { client: client_unix, send: '{ var x = 4; }',
       expect: 'undefined\n' + prompt_unix },
+    // Illegal token is not recoverable outside string literal, RegExp literal,
+    // or block comment. https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/3611
+    { client: client_unix, send: 'a = 3.5e',
+      expect: /^SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL/ },
   ]);
 }