diff --git a/docs/apireference.rst b/docs/apireference.rst
index 03e44e63..1a243d2e 100644
--- a/docs/apireference.rst
+++ b/docs/apireference.rst
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@ Fields
 
 .. autoclass:: mongoengine.EmbeddedDocumentField
 
+.. autoclass:: mongoengine.DictField
+
 .. autoclass:: mongoengine.ListField
 
 .. autoclass:: mongoengine.ObjectIdField
diff --git a/docs/guide/defining-documents.rst b/docs/guide/defining-documents.rst
index 0a12cb6d..0862ffd0 100644
--- a/docs/guide/defining-documents.rst
+++ b/docs/guide/defining-documents.rst
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ are as follows:
 * :class:`~mongoengine.FloatField`
 * :class:`~mongoengine.DateTimeField`
 * :class:`~mongoengine.ListField`
+* :class:`~mongoengine.DictField`
 * :class:`~mongoengine.ObjectIdField`
 * :class:`~mongoengine.EmbeddedDocumentField`
 * :class:`~mongoengine.ReferenceField`
@@ -75,6 +76,23 @@ document class as the first argument::
     comment2 = Comment('Nice article!')
     page = Page(comments=[comment1, comment2])
 
+Dictionary Fields
+-----------------
+Often, an embedded document may be used instead of a dictionary -- generally
+this is recommended as dictionaries don't support validation or custom field
+types. However, sometimes you will not know the structure of what you want to
+store; in this situation a :class:`~mongoengine.DictField` is appropriate::
+    
+    class SurveyResponse(Document):
+        date = DateTimeField()
+        user = ReferenceField(User)
+        answers = DictField()
+
+    survey_response = SurveyResponse(date=datetime.now(), user=request.user)
+    response_form = ResponseForm(request.POST)
+    survey_response.answers = response_form.cleaned_data()   
+    survey_response.save()
+
 Reference fields
 ----------------
 References may be stored to other documents in the database using the
diff --git a/mongoengine/fields.py b/mongoengine/fields.py
index 6a7e95a4..67ac69c3 100644
--- a/mongoengine/fields.py
+++ b/mongoengine/fields.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import datetime
 
 
 __all__ = ['StringField', 'IntField', 'FloatField', 'BooleanField',
-           'DateTimeField', 'EmbeddedDocumentField', 'ListField', 
+           'DateTimeField', 'EmbeddedDocumentField', 'ListField', 'DictField',
            'ObjectIdField', 'ReferenceField', 'ValidationError']
 
 
@@ -179,6 +179,28 @@ class ListField(BaseField):
         return self.field.lookup_member(member_name)
 
 
+class DictField(BaseField):
+    """A dictionary field that wraps a standard Python dictionary. This is
+    similar to an embedded document, but the structure is not defined.
+
+    .. versionadded:: 0.2.3
+    """
+
+    def validate(self, value):
+        """Make sure that a list of valid fields is being used.
+        """
+        if not isinstance(value, dict):
+            raise ValidationError('Only dictionaries may be used in a '
+                                  'DictField') 
+
+        if any(('.' in k or '$' in k) for k in value):
+            raise ValidationError('Invalid dictionary key name - keys may not ' 
+                                  'contain "." or "$" characters')
+
+    def lookup_member(self, member_name):
+        return BaseField(name=member_name)
+
+
 class ReferenceField(BaseField):
     """A reference to a document that will be automatically dereferenced on
     access (lazily).
diff --git a/tests/fields.py b/tests/fields.py
index 599e3d75..7949cc36 100644
--- a/tests/fields.py
+++ b/tests/fields.py
@@ -176,6 +176,28 @@ class FieldTest(unittest.TestCase):
         post.comments = 'yay'
         self.assertRaises(ValidationError, post.validate)
 
+    def test_dict_validation(self):
+        """Ensure that dict types work as expected.
+        """
+        class BlogPost(Document):
+            info = DictField()
+
+        post = BlogPost()
+        post.info = 'my post'
+        self.assertRaises(ValidationError, post.validate)
+
+        post.info = ['test', 'test']
+        self.assertRaises(ValidationError, post.validate)
+
+        post.info = {'$title': 'test'}
+        self.assertRaises(ValidationError, post.validate)
+
+        post.info = {'the.title': 'test'}
+        self.assertRaises(ValidationError, post.validate)
+
+        post.info = {'title': 'test'}
+        post.validate()
+
     def test_embedded_document_validation(self):
         """Ensure that invalid embedded documents cannot be assigned to
         embedded document fields.
diff --git a/tests/queryset.py b/tests/queryset.py
index 00f3e461..6d45bdae 100644
--- a/tests/queryset.py
+++ b/tests/queryset.py
@@ -277,6 +277,22 @@ class QuerySetTest(unittest.TestCase):
         
         BlogPost.drop_collection()
 
+    def test_find_dict_item(self):
+        """Ensure that DictField items may be found.
+        """
+        class BlogPost(Document):
+            info = DictField()
+
+        BlogPost.drop_collection()
+
+        post = BlogPost(info={'title': 'test'})
+        post.save()
+
+        post_obj = BlogPost.objects(info__title='test').first()
+        self.assertEqual(post_obj.id, post.id)
+
+        BlogPost.drop_collection()
+
     def test_q(self):
         class BlogPost(Document):
             publish_date = DateTimeField()