diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/dict2items-mapping.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/dict2items-mapping.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..814576f0134
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/dict2items-mapping.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- dict2items - Allow dict2items to work with hostvars
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
index ac66dcdd97a..e7954ee8872 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ from ansible.module_utils.six import iteritems, string_types, integer_types, rer
 from ansible.module_utils.six.moves import reduce, shlex_quote
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_bytes, to_native, to_text
 from ansible.module_utils.common.collections import is_sequence
-from ansible.module_utils.common._collections_compat import MutableMapping
+from ansible.module_utils.common._collections_compat import Mapping, MutableMapping
 from ansible.parsing.ajson import AnsibleJSONEncoder
 from ansible.parsing.yaml.dumper import AnsibleDumper
 from ansible.utils.display import Display
@@ -510,7 +510,7 @@ def dict_to_list_of_dict_key_value_elements(mydict, key_name='key', value_name='
     ''' takes a dictionary and transforms it into a list of dictionaries,
         with each having a 'key' and 'value' keys that correspond to the keys and values of the original '''
 
-    if not isinstance(mydict, MutableMapping):
+    if not isinstance(mydict, Mapping):
         raise AnsibleFilterError("dict2items requires a dictionary, got %s instead." % type(mydict))
 
     ret = []
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/filters/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/targets/filters/tasks/main.yml
index 99aa9beeb36..a16698a4656 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/filters/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/filters/tasks/main.yml
@@ -266,3 +266,10 @@
       - "'192.168.0.1/24' | ipaddr('network') == '192.168.0.0'"
       - "'fe80::dead:beef/64' | ipaddr('broadcast') == 'fe80::ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff'"
       - "'::1/120' | ipaddr('netmask') == 'ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ff00'"
+
+- name: Ensure dict2items works with hostvars
+  debug:
+    msg: "{{ item.key }}"
+  loop: "{{ hostvars|dict2items }}"
+  loop_control:
+    label: "{{ item.key }}"