diff --git a/Doc/library/functools.rst b/Doc/library/functools.rst
index cd59e5bebfd565..4852b06f5fddcd 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functools.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functools.rst
@@ -309,6 +309,65 @@ The :mod:`functools` module defines the following functions:
    See :func:`itertools.accumulate` for an iterator that yields all intermediate
    values.
 
+
+.. function:: identity(x)
+
+   Returns its argument unchanged. This function can be used in situations
+   in which a default function argument is required.
+
+     >>> from itertools import cycle
+     >>> from functools import identity
+     >>> def negate(x): return -x
+     ...
+     >>> def inverse_second(iterable):
+     ...     return map(lambda t: t[0](t[1]), zip(cycle([identity, negate]), iterable))
+     ...
+     >>> print(list(inverse_second([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9])))
+     [1, -2, 3, -4, 5, -6, 7, -8, 9]
+
+
+.. function:: compose(f1[, f2[, f3[...]]])
+
+   Return a new *function* **f**. The resulting function **f** will be a so called
+   threaded computation. A threaded computation will use the return value of the
+   first function as the input value of the second function and the return value
+   of the second function will become the input o the third function until no
+   more functions are left. The last return value will be the final return value
+   of **f**. In summary ``compose(f1,f2,f3)(x) == f3(f2(f1(x)))``.
+
+   This is also called a pipeline, because it follows the same logic as the
+   pipe character of the UNIX shell `echo x | f1 | f2 | f3`.
+
+     >>> from functools import compose, partial
+     >>> rectify_data = compose(
+     ...     lambda s: s.split('\n'),
+     ...     partial(filter, lambda s: len(s)>0),
+     ...     partial(map, lambda s: s.lower()),
+     ...     lambda ss: '\n'.join(ss)
+     ... )
+     >>> data = "Line1\nLiNe2\n\n\n\nlINE3"
+     >>> rectify_data(data)
+     'line1\nline2\nline3'
+
+
+.. function:: sequence(x, f1[, f2[, f3[...]]])
+
+   Apply the argument *x* to the composition of the functions. This is a
+   helper function and equivalent to ``compose(f1,f2,f3)(x)``.
+
+     >>> from functools import sequence, partial
+     >>> data = "Line1\nLiNe2\n\n\n\nlINE3"
+     >>> rectified_data = sequence(
+     ...     data,
+     ...     lambda s: s.split('\n'),
+     ...     partial(filter, lambda s: len(s)>0),
+     ...     partial(map, lambda s: s.lower()),
+     ...     lambda ss: '\n'.join(ss)
+     ... )
+     >>> rectified_data
+     'line1\nline2\nline3'
+
+
 .. decorator:: singledispatch
 
    Transform a function into a :term:`single-dispatch <single
diff --git a/Lib/functools.py b/Lib/functools.py
index 6233c30c203ea7..0770a22a54c16e 100644
--- a/Lib/functools.py
+++ b/Lib/functools.py
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@
 
 __all__ = ['update_wrapper', 'wraps', 'WRAPPER_ASSIGNMENTS', 'WRAPPER_UPDATES',
            'total_ordering', 'cmp_to_key', 'lru_cache', 'reduce', 'partial',
-           'partialmethod', 'singledispatch', 'singledispatchmethod']
+           'partialmethod', 'identity', 'compose', 'sequence',
+           'singledispatch', 'singledispatchmethod']
 
 from abc import get_cache_token
 from collections import namedtuple
@@ -430,6 +431,36 @@ def _unwrap_partial(func):
         func = func.func
     return func
 
+
+################################################################################
+### Higher order function combinator primitives
+################################################################################
+
+def identity(x):
+    """The identity functions simply returns its argument"""
+    return x
+
+
+def compose(f, *func_list):
+    """Compose a list of functions into one new function. The resulting
+    function will thread the computation results through all of its component
+    functions, i.e. the return value of the previous function will be the
+    input to the next function. For example, for f = compose(f1, f2), f(x)
+    would be equivalent to f2(f1(x)).
+    """
+    def helper(*args, **kwargs):
+        return reduce(lambda x, f: f(x), func_list, f(*args, **kwargs))
+    return helper
+
+
+def sequence(x, f, *func_list):
+    """Thread the given input argument through all provided functions,
+    whereupon the return value of a previous function becomes the input value
+    to the next function and the overall value of the sequence will be the
+    result of the last function. For example, sequence(x, f1, f2) == f2(f1(x)).
+    """
+    return compose(f, *func_list)(x)
+
 ################################################################################
 ### LRU Cache function decorator
 ################################################################################
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-01-29-23-51-39.bpo-35853.mOvdrV.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-01-29-23-51-39.bpo-35853.mOvdrV.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..0c3bb9920c7055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2019-01-29-23-51-39.bpo-35853.mOvdrV.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Higher order functions are functions which can take other functions as arguments and have functions as return value. Higher order functions allow the creation of new functions out of existing ones and support a functional programming style. The *functools* module now contains more higher order function combinators.
\ No newline at end of file