diff --git a/src/transcode.jl b/src/transcode.jl
index b1b03876..93dd41e0 100644
--- a/src/transcode.jl
+++ b/src/transcode.jl
@@ -40,6 +40,13 @@ function Base.transcode(::Type{C}, args...) where {C<:Codec}
     end
 end
 
+# Disambiguate `Base.transcode(::Type{C}, args...)` above from
+# `Base.transcode(T, ::String)` in Julia `Base`. This mirrors the
+# implementation of the latter
+function Base.transcode(::Type{C}, src::String) where {C<:Codec}
+    return transcode(C, codeunits(src))
+end
+
 _default_output_buffer(codec, input) = Buffer(
     initial_output_size(
         codec,
diff --git a/test/codecnoop.jl b/test/codecnoop.jl
index 22e6e93c..605dd15a 100644
--- a/test/codecnoop.jl
+++ b/test/codecnoop.jl
@@ -213,6 +213,11 @@
     output = TranscodingStreams.Buffer(Vector{UInt8}())
     @test transcode(Noop(), data, output) === output.data
 
+    data = ""
+    @test String(transcode(Noop, data)) == data
+    data = "foo"
+    @test String(transcode(Noop, data)) == data
+
     TranscodingStreams.test_roundtrip_transcode(Noop, Noop)
     TranscodingStreams.test_roundtrip_read(NoopStream, NoopStream)
     TranscodingStreams.test_roundtrip_write(NoopStream, NoopStream)