diff --git a/doc/youcompleteme.txt b/doc/youcompleteme.txt
index 45ab71bd..96f64e21 100644
--- a/doc/youcompleteme.txt
+++ b/doc/youcompleteme.txt
@@ -1030,6 +1030,9 @@ support that filetype.
 
 You can get the filetype of the current file in Vim with ':set ft?'.
 
+To disable the semantic completion engine for all filetypes, you can use '*'
+as a special wildcard filetype key: {'*': 1}.
+
 Default: '{}'
 >
   let g:ycm_filetype_specific_completion_to_disable = {}
diff --git a/python/ycm/youcompleteme.py b/python/ycm/youcompleteme.py
index c3f07aed..a64c2ba5 100644
--- a/python/ycm/youcompleteme.py
+++ b/python/ycm/youcompleteme.py
@@ -332,7 +332,10 @@ class YouCompleteMe( object ):
     filetypes = vimsupport.CurrentFiletypes()
     filetype_to_disable = self._user_options[
       'filetype_specific_completion_to_disable' ]
-    return not all([ x in filetype_to_disable for x in filetypes ])
+    if '*' in filetype_to_disable:
+      return False
+    else:
+      return not all([ x in filetype_to_disable for x in filetypes ])
 
 
   def _AddSyntaxDataIfNeeded( self, extra_data ):