diff --git a/include/pybind11/numpy.h b/include/pybind11/numpy.h
index 019f5688e..d1ddc4a9d 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/numpy.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/numpy.h
@@ -507,11 +507,21 @@ public:
         return detail::array_descriptor_proxy(m_ptr)->names != nullptr;
     }
 
-    /// Single-character type code.
+    /// Single-character code for dtype's kind.
+    /// For example, floating point types are 'f' and integral types are 'i'.
     char kind() const {
         return detail::array_descriptor_proxy(m_ptr)->kind;
     }
 
+    /// Single-character for dtype's type.
+    /// For example, ``float`` is 'f', ``double`` 'd', ``int`` 'i', and ``long`` 'd'.
+    char char_() const {
+        // Note: The signature, `dtype::char_` follows the naming of NumPy's
+        // public Python API (i.e., ``dtype.char``), rather than its internal
+        // C API (``PyArray_Descr::type``).
+        return detail::array_descriptor_proxy(m_ptr)->type;
+    }
+
 private:
     static object _dtype_from_pep3118() {
         static PyObject *obj = module_::import("numpy.core._internal")
diff --git a/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.cpp b/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.cpp
index b2e5e6075..9dece73ec 100644
--- a/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.cpp
+++ b/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.cpp
@@ -358,6 +358,14 @@ TEST_SUBMODULE(numpy_dtypes, m) {
     });
 
     // test_dtype
+    std::vector<const char *> dtype_names{
+        "byte", "short", "intc", "int_", "longlong",
+        "ubyte", "ushort", "uintc", "uint", "ulonglong",
+        "half", "single", "double", "longdouble",
+        "csingle", "cdouble", "clongdouble",
+        "bool_", "datetime64", "timedelta64", "object_"
+    };
+
     m.def("print_dtypes", []() {
         py::list l;
         for (const py::handle &d : {
@@ -376,6 +384,18 @@ TEST_SUBMODULE(numpy_dtypes, m) {
         return l;
     });
     m.def("test_dtype_ctors", &test_dtype_ctors);
+    m.def("test_dtype_kind", [dtype_names]() {
+        py::list list;
+        for (auto& dt_name : dtype_names)
+            list.append(py::dtype(dt_name).kind());
+        return list;
+    });
+    m.def("test_dtype_char_", [dtype_names]() {
+        py::list list;
+        for (auto& dt_name : dtype_names)
+            list.append(py::dtype(dt_name).char_());
+        return list;
+    });
     m.def("test_dtype_methods", []() {
         py::list list;
         auto dt1 = py::dtype::of<int32_t>();
diff --git a/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.py b/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.py
index f56b776a4..0a5881e49 100644
--- a/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.py
+++ b/tests/test_numpy_dtypes.py
@@ -169,6 +169,9 @@ def test_dtype(simple_dtype):
         np.zeros(1, m.trailing_padding_dtype())
     )
 
+    assert m.test_dtype_kind() == list("iiiiiuuuuuffffcccbMmO")
+    assert m.test_dtype_char_() == list("bhilqBHILQefdgFDG?MmO")
+
 
 def test_recarray(simple_dtype, packed_dtype):
     elements = [(False, 0, 0.0, -0.0), (True, 1, 1.5, -2.5), (False, 2, 3.0, -5.0)]