diff --git a/include/pybind11/detail/common.h b/include/pybind11/detail/common.h
index fb7c22f60..d466925dd 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/detail/common.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/detail/common.h
@@ -92,6 +92,14 @@
 #  define PYBIND11_DEPRECATED(reason) __attribute__((deprecated(reason)))
 #endif
 
+#if defined(PYBIND11_CPP17)
+#  define PYBIND11_MAYBE_UNUSED [[maybe_unused]]
+#elif defined(_MSC_VER) && !defined(__clang__)
+#  define PYBIND11_MAYBE_UNUSED
+#else
+#  define PYBIND11_MAYBE_UNUSED __attribute__ ((__unused__))
+#endif
+
 #define PYBIND11_VERSION_MAJOR 2
 #define PYBIND11_VERSION_MINOR 5
 #define PYBIND11_VERSION_PATCH dev1
@@ -285,6 +293,10 @@ extern "C" {
     should not be in quotes. The second macro argument defines a variable of type
     `py::module` which can be used to initialize the module.
 
+    The entry point is marked as "maybe unused" to aid dead-code detection analysis:
+    since the entry point is typically only looked up at runtime and not referenced
+    during translation, it would otherwise appear as unused ("dead") code.
+
     .. code-block:: cpp
 
         PYBIND11_MODULE(example, m) {
@@ -297,6 +309,7 @@ extern "C" {
         }
 \endrst */
 #define PYBIND11_MODULE(name, variable)                                        \
+    PYBIND11_MAYBE_UNUSED                                                      \
     static void PYBIND11_CONCAT(pybind11_init_, name)(pybind11::module &);     \
     PYBIND11_PLUGIN_IMPL(name) {                                               \
         PYBIND11_CHECK_PYTHON_VERSION                                          \