diff --git a/pandas/io/clipboard.py b/pandas/io/clipboard.py
index 2109e1c5d6d4c..6f6f1366a6732 100644
--- a/pandas/io/clipboard.py
+++ b/pandas/io/clipboard.py
@@ -3,12 +3,16 @@
 from pandas.compat import StringIO
 
 
-def read_clipboard(**kwargs):  # pragma: no cover
-    """
+def read_clipboard(sep='\s+', **kwargs):  # pragma: no cover
+    r"""
     Read text from clipboard and pass to read_table. See read_table for the
     full argument list
 
-    If unspecified, `sep` defaults to '\s+'
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    sep : str, default '\s+'.
+        A string or regex delimiter. The default of '\s+' denotes
+        one or more whitespace characters.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -29,7 +33,7 @@ def read_clipboard(**kwargs):  # pragma: no cover
         except:
             pass
 
-    # Excel copies into clipboard with \t seperation
+    # Excel copies into clipboard with \t separation
     # inspect no more then the 10 first lines, if they
     # all contain an equal number (>0) of tabs, infer
     # that this came from excel and set 'sep' accordingly
@@ -43,12 +47,12 @@ def read_clipboard(**kwargs):  # pragma: no cover
 
     counts = set([x.lstrip().count('\t') for x in lines])
     if len(lines) > 1 and len(counts) == 1 and counts.pop() != 0:
-        kwargs['sep'] = '\t'
+        sep = '\t'
 
-    if kwargs.get('sep') is None and kwargs.get('delim_whitespace') is None:
-        kwargs['sep'] = '\s+'
+    if sep is None and kwargs.get('delim_whitespace') is None:
+        sep = '\s+'
 
-    return read_table(StringIO(text), **kwargs)
+    return read_table(StringIO(text), sep=sep, **kwargs)
 
 
 def to_clipboard(obj, excel=None, sep=None, **kwargs):  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_clipboard.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_clipboard.py
index a7da27a2f75dd..6c5ee6fcd22ba 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_clipboard.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_clipboard.py
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ def check_round_trip_frame(self, data_type, excel=None, sep=None):
     def test_round_trip_frame_sep(self):
         for dt in self.data_types:
             self.check_round_trip_frame(dt, sep=',')
+            self.check_round_trip_frame(dt, sep='\s+')
+            self.check_round_trip_frame(dt, sep='|')
 
     def test_round_trip_frame_string(self):
         for dt in self.data_types: