diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index e306f6cb8..a4222548d 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+importlib_metadata<5  Pinned for flake8 support
 flake8
 nltk>=3.2,<4.0
 nose