diff --git a/galleries/users_explain/colors/colormaps.py b/galleries/users_explain/colors/colormaps.py
index a38dd2af0fc9..92b56d298976 100644
--- a/galleries/users_explain/colors/colormaps.py
+++ b/galleries/users_explain/colors/colormaps.py
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@
 help on creating your own colormaps, see
 :ref:`colormap-manipulation`.
 
+To get a list of all registered colormaps, you can do::
+
+    from matplotlib import colormaps
+    list(colormaps)
+
 Overview
 ========
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/cm.py b/lib/matplotlib/cm.py
index a2cd3788114d..3911986f3673 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/cm.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/cm.py
@@ -74,6 +74,11 @@ class ColormapRegistry(Mapping):
     Additional colormaps can be added via `.ColormapRegistry.register`::
 
         mpl.colormaps.register(my_colormap)
+
+    To get a list of all registered colormaps, you can do::
+
+        from matplotlib import colormaps
+        list(colormaps)
     """
     def __init__(self, cmaps):
         self._cmaps = cmaps