diff --git a/docs/changes.rst b/docs/changes.rst
index 177318630..6c354e9af 100644
--- a/docs/changes.rst
+++ b/docs/changes.rst
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Release History
 * ``activate.csh`` does not use basename and handles newlines :issue:`1200`
 * fix failure to copy on platforms that use lib64 :issue:`1189`
 * enable tab-completion in the interactive interpreter by default, thanks to a new ``sys.__interactivehook__`` on Python 3 :issue:`967`
-
+* suppress warning of usage of the deprecated ``imp`` module :issue:`1238`
 
 16.0.0 (2018-05-16)
 -------------------
diff --git a/src/virtualenv.py b/src/virtualenv.py
index b41527e5f..23c3aff66 100755
--- a/src/virtualenv.py
+++ b/src/virtualenv.py
@@ -1112,7 +1112,13 @@ def change_prefix(filename, dst_prefix):
 
 
 def copy_required_modules(dst_prefix, symlink):
-    import imp
+    import warnings
+
+    with warnings.catch_warnings():
+        # Ignore deprecation of the imp module
+        # TODO: do not use deprecated imp module
+        warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
+        import imp
 
     for modname in REQUIRED_MODULES:
         if modname in sys.builtin_module_names: