diff --git a/docs/contributing.rst b/docs/contributing.rst
index 02ca00455..7f444871d 100644
--- a/docs/contributing.rst
+++ b/docs/contributing.rst
@@ -280,6 +280,7 @@ one per subdirectory, and can be executed using the ``cmdlineTests.sh`` script.
 By default the script runs all available tests.
 You can also provide one or more `file name patterns <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#Filename-Expansion>`_,
 in which case only the tests matching at least one pattern will be executed.
+It is also possible to exclude files matching a specific pattern by prefixing it with ``--exclude``.
 
 By default the script assumes that a ``solc`` binary is available inside the ``build/`` subdirectory
 inside the working copy.
@@ -291,10 +292,11 @@ Example:
 .. code-block:: bash
 
     export SOLIDITY_BUILD_DIR=~/solidity/build/
-    test/cmdlineTests.sh "standard_*" "*_yul_*"
+    test/cmdlineTests.sh "standard_*" "*_yul_*" --exclude "standard_yul_*"
 
 The commands above will run tests from directories starting with ``test/cmdlineTests/standard_`` and
-subdirectories of ``test/cmdlineTests/`` that have ``_yul_`` somewhere in the name.
+subdirectories of ``test/cmdlineTests/`` that have ``_yul_`` somewhere in the name,
+but no test whose name starts with ``standard_yul_`` will be executed.
 It will also assume that the file ``solidity/build/solc/solc`` inside your home directory is the
 compiler binary (unless you are on Windows -- then ``solidity/build/solc/Release/solc.exe``).
 
diff --git a/test/cmdlineTests.sh b/test/cmdlineTests.sh
index 7a219a1a9..b02880557 100755
--- a/test/cmdlineTests.sh
+++ b/test/cmdlineTests.sh
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ pushd "${REPO_ROOT}/test/cmdlineTests" > /dev/null
 autoupdate=false
 no_smt=false
 declare -a included_test_patterns
+declare -a excluded_test_patterns
 while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]
 do
     case "$1" in
@@ -54,6 +55,12 @@ do
             no_smt=true
             shift
             ;;
+        --exclude)
+            [[ $2 != '' ]] || fail "No pattern given to --exclude option or the pattern is empty."
+            excluded_test_patterns+=("$2")
+            shift
+            shift
+            ;;
         *)
             included_test_patterns+=("$1")
             shift
@@ -70,6 +77,11 @@ do
 done
 test_name_filter+=(')')
 
+for pattern in "${excluded_test_patterns[@]}"
+do
+    test_name_filter+=(-and -not -name "$pattern")
+done
+
 # NOTE: We want leading symbols in names to affect the sort order but without
 # LC_COLLATE=C sort seems to ignore them.
 # shellcheck disable=SC2207 # We do not support test names containing spaces.