diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index 212bd6331fb04..2120c8b5fcfc7 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -469,7 +469,7 @@ def to_sparse(self, fill_value=None, kind='block'):
                                default_fill_value=fill_value)
 
     def to_csv(self, path, nanRep='', cols=None, header=True,
-              index=True, index_label=None, mode='w'):
+              index=True, index_label=None, mode='w', delimiter=","):
         """
         Write DataFrame to a comma-separated values (csv) file
 
@@ -489,9 +489,11 @@ def to_csv(self, path, nanRep='', cols=None, header=True,
             `header` and `index` are True, then the index names are used. A
             sequence should be given if the DataFrame uses MultiIndex.
         mode : Python write mode, default 'w'
+        delimiter : character, default ","
+            Field delimiter for the output file.
         """
         f = open(path, mode)
-        csvout = csv.writer(f, lineterminator='\n')
+        csvout = csv.writer(f, lineterminator='\n', delimiter=delimiter)
 
         if cols is None:
             cols = self.columns