diff --git a/base/deprecated.jl b/base/deprecated.jl
index 942f7bcbb179a..e0dec70da1f29 100644
--- a/base/deprecated.jl
+++ b/base/deprecated.jl
@@ -1002,3 +1002,6 @@ export call
 
 # 1933
 @deprecate_binding SingleAsyncWork AsyncCondition
+
+# #12872
+@deprecate istext istextmime
diff --git a/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl b/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
index f39911c9cc658..f94fe45fdfd8e 100644
--- a/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
+++ b/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
@@ -8182,7 +8182,7 @@ Returns an `AbstractString` or `Vector{UInt8}` containing the representation of
 requested `mime` type, as written by `writemime` (throwing a `MethodError` if no appropriate
 `writemime` is available). An `AbstractString` is returned for MIME types with textual
 representations (such as `"text/html"` or `"application/postscript"`), whereas binary data
-is returned as `Vector{UInt8}`. (The function `istext(mime)` returns whether or not Julia
+is returned as `Vector{UInt8}`. (The function `istextmime(mime)` returns whether or not Julia
 treats a given `mime` type as text.)
 
 As a special case, if `x` is an `AbstractString` (for textual MIME types) or a
@@ -10160,11 +10160,11 @@ processes completed successfully.
 exit
 
 """
-    istext(m::MIME)
+    istextmime(m::MIME)
 
 Determine whether a MIME type is text data.
 """
-istext
+istextmime
 
 """
     merge!(collection, others...)
diff --git a/base/exports.jl b/base/exports.jl
index 4f0601ca50fae..a761f2314a5b3 100644
--- a/base/exports.jl
+++ b/base/exports.jl
@@ -1239,7 +1239,7 @@ export
     display,
     displayable,
     TextDisplay,
-    istext,
+    istextmime,
     MIME,
     @MIME,
     @MIME_str,
diff --git a/base/multimedia.jl b/base/multimedia.jl
index be8c6f372c697..7a69c1ffbdf2e 100644
--- a/base/multimedia.jl
+++ b/base/multimedia.jl
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 module Multimedia
 
 export Display, display, pushdisplay, popdisplay, displayable, redisplay,
-   MIME, @MIME, @MIME_str, writemime, reprmime, stringmime, istext,
+   MIME, @MIME, @MIME_str, writemime, reprmime, stringmime, istextmime,
    mimewritable, TextDisplay
 
 ###########################################################################
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ mimewritable(m::AbstractString, x) = mimewritable(MIME(m), x)
 
 ###########################################################################
 # MIME types are assumed to be binary data except for a set of types known
-# to be text data (possibly Unicode).  istext(m) returns whether
+# to be text data (possibly Unicode).  istextmime(m) returns whether
 # m::MIME is text data, and reprmime(m, x) returns x written to either
 # a string (for text m::MIME) or a Vector{UInt8} (for binary m::MIME),
 # assuming the corresponding write_mime method exists.  stringmime
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ macro textmime(mime)
         Base.Multimedia.reprmime(m::mimeT, x::Vector{UInt8}) = sprint(writemime, m, x)
         Base.Multimedia.stringmime(m::mimeT, x::Vector{UInt8}) = reprmime(m, x)
 
-        Base.Multimedia.istext(::mimeT) = true
+        Base.Multimedia.istextmime(::mimeT) = true
         if $(mime != "text/plain") # strings are shown escaped for text/plain
             Base.Multimedia.reprmime(m::mimeT, x::AbstractString) = x
         end
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ macro textmime(mime)
     end
 end
 
-istext(::MIME) = false
+istextmime(::MIME) = false
 function reprmime(m::MIME, x)
     s = IOBuffer()
     writemime(s, m, x)
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ stringmime(m::MIME, x) = base64encode(writemime, m, x)
 stringmime(m::MIME, x::Vector{UInt8}) = base64encode(write, x)
 
 # it is convenient to accept strings instead of ::MIME
-istext(m::AbstractString) = istext(MIME(m))
+istextmime(m::AbstractString) = istextmime(MIME(m))
 reprmime(m::AbstractString, x) = reprmime(MIME(m), x)
 stringmime(m::AbstractString, x) = stringmime(MIME(m), x)