diff --git a/types/node-fetch/externals.d.ts b/types/node-fetch/externals.d.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6695fc470f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/types/node-fetch/externals.d.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+// `AbortSignal` is defined here to prevent a dependency on a particular
+// implementation like the `abort-controller` package, and to avoid requiring
+// the `dom` library in `tsconfig.json`.
+
+export interface AbortSignal {
+    aborted: boolean;
+
+    addEventListener: (type: "abort", listener: ((this: AbortSignal, event: any) => any), options?: boolean | {
+        capture?: boolean,
+        once?: boolean,
+        passive?: boolean
+    }) => void;
+
+    removeEventListener: (type: "abort", listener: ((this: AbortSignal, event: any) => any), options?: boolean | {
+        capture?: boolean
+    }) => void;
+
+    dispatchEvent: (event: any) => boolean;
+
+    onabort?: null | ((this: AbortSignal, event: any) => void);
+}
diff --git a/types/node-fetch/index.d.ts b/types/node-fetch/index.d.ts
index c5b5c707a3..f35c13f2a0 100644
--- a/types/node-fetch/index.d.ts
+++ b/types/node-fetch/index.d.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 import { Agent } from "http";
 import { URLSearchParams } from "url";
+import { AbortSignal } from "./externals";
 
 export class Request extends Body {
     constructor(input: string | { href: string } | Request, init?: RequestInit);
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ export interface RequestInit {
     headers?: HeadersInit;
     method?: string;
     redirect?: RequestRedirect;
+    signal?: AbortSignal | null;
 
     // node-fetch extensions
     agent?: Agent; // =null http.Agent instance, allows custom proxy, certificate etc.
diff --git a/types/node-fetch/node-fetch-tests.ts b/types/node-fetch/node-fetch-tests.ts
index 9dfb3179e4..3f42000022 100644
--- a/types/node-fetch/node-fetch-tests.ts
+++ b/types/node-fetch/node-fetch-tests.ts
@@ -50,6 +50,21 @@ function test_fetchUrlWithRequestObject() {
         method: "POST",
         headers: {
             "Content-Type": "application/json"
+        },
+        signal: {
+            aborted: false,
+
+            addEventListener: (type: "abort", listener: ((event: any) => any), options?: boolean | {
+                capture?: boolean,
+                once?: boolean,
+                passive?: boolean
+            }) => undefined,
+
+            removeEventListener: (type: "abort", listener: ((event: any) => any), options?: boolean | {
+                capture?: boolean
+            }) => undefined,
+
+            dispatchEvent: (event: any) => false
         }
     };
     const request: Request = new Request(
diff --git a/types/node-fetch/tsconfig.json b/types/node-fetch/tsconfig.json
index d349bf9665..50f65d691a 100644
--- a/types/node-fetch/tsconfig.json
+++ b/types/node-fetch/tsconfig.json
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
     },
     "files": [
         "index.d.ts",
+        "externals.d.ts",
         "node-fetch-tests.ts"
     ]
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}