diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 734d5fd8a80..a078bcebfc1 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -497,6 +497,8 @@ current and the previous or the next line, as before.
 
 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 27.1
 
+** The 'cl' package is now officially deprecated in favor of `cl-lib`.
+
 +++
 ** winner
 *** A new variable, 'winner-boring-buffers-regexp', has been added.
diff --git a/lisp/emacs-lisp/cl.el b/lisp/obsolete/cl.el
similarity index 99%
rename from lisp/emacs-lisp/cl.el
rename to lisp/obsolete/cl.el
index 71be1d1b492..417c757ed52 100644
--- a/lisp/emacs-lisp/cl.el
+++ b/lisp/obsolete/cl.el
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ;; Copyright (C) 2012-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
 ;; Author: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
+;; Deprecated-since: 27.1
 ;; Keywords: extensions
 
 ;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.
diff --git a/lisp/subr.el b/lisp/subr.el
index eea4e045dde..518575f6b4a 100644
--- a/lisp/subr.el
+++ b/lisp/subr.el
@@ -4453,7 +4453,7 @@ This function is called directly from the C code."
            (package (intern (substring file 0
 			               (string-match "\\.elc?\\>" file))
                             obarray))
-	   (msg (format "Package %s is obsolete" package)))
+	   (msg (format "Package %s is deprecated" package)))
       ;; Cribbed from cl--compiling-file.
       (when (or (not (fboundp 'byte-compile-warning-enabled-p))
                 (byte-compile-warning-enabled-p 'obsolete package))