From emacs -Q: (setq python-shell-interpreter "ipython" python-shell-interpreter-args "-i") M-x run-python In the python comint buffer insert "from itertools imp" and hit tab. You will see "imp" completed as "import" (no trailing space). However, if you do this in ipython itself, you will see "imp" completed as "import ". This (i.e. what ipython does) is the desired behavior (because import is always followed by another word). In GNU Emacs 25.1.50.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin14.5.0, NS appkit-1348.17 Version 10.10.5 (Build 14F27)) of 2016-04-16 built on hemiprocne Repository revision: 934549e23d6bda5231375dbfed7b42a966c85d14 Windowing system distributor 'Apple', version 10.3.1348 Configured using: 'configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD --enable-locallisppath=/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp --infodir=/usr/local/Cellar/emacs/HEAD/share/info/emacs --with-xml2 --without-dbus --without-gnutls --with-ns --disable-ns-self-contained' Configured features: JPEG NOTIFY ACL LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS NS Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message dired dired-loaddefs format-spec rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/ns-win ns-win ucs-normalize term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote kqueue cocoa ns multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 195970 9329) (symbols 48 19431 0) (miscs 40 43 170) (strings 32 14792 5110) (string-bytes 1 431078) (vectors 16 32763) (vector-slots 8 640839 4764) (floats 8 156 54) (intervals 56 194 0) (buffers 976 11))