diff --git a/Lib/test/test_minidom.py b/Lib/test/test_minidom.py
index a2cc8828461d3e..e91cdba1eb2eff 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_minidom.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_minidom.py
@@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ def testRemoveAttributeNode(self):
         node = child.getAttributeNode("spam")
         self.assertRaises(xml.dom.NotFoundErr, child.removeAttributeNode,
             None)
-        child.removeAttributeNode(node)
+        self.assertIs(node, child.removeAttributeNode(node))
         self.confirm(len(child.attributes) == 0
                 and child.getAttributeNode("spam") is None)
         dom2 = Document()
diff --git a/Lib/xml/dom/minidom.py b/Lib/xml/dom/minidom.py
index a5d813f932ace3..e44e04a069ecb4 100644
--- a/Lib/xml/dom/minidom.py
+++ b/Lib/xml/dom/minidom.py
@@ -823,6 +823,7 @@ def removeAttributeNode(self, node):
         # Restore this since the node is still useful and otherwise
         # unlinked
         node.ownerDocument = self.ownerDocument
+        return node
 
     removeAttributeNodeNS = removeAttributeNode
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-06-06-22-01-33.bpo-33274.teYqv8.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-06-06-22-01-33.bpo-33274.teYqv8.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..420652bddf6eb4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-06-06-22-01-33.bpo-33274.teYqv8.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+W3C DOM Level 1 specifies return value of Element.removeAttributeNode() as
+"The Attr node that was removed." xml.dom.minidom now complies with this
+requirement.