diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index 1f3db8759394ae2a19c34664b126c4b304b2132c..8750b71b98d1d2752978017743cacf896fad8c13 100644
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+from importlib import metadata
 from urllib.request import urlopen
 
 
@@ -13,15 +14,9 @@ extensions.extend([  # noqa: F821
 
 tikz_tikzlibraries = "decorations.markings"
 
-copyright = "2014-21, Meshmode contributors"
-
-ver_dic = {}
-with open("../meshmode/version.py") as _inf:
-    exec(compile(_inf.read(), "../meshmode/version.py", "exec"), ver_dic)
-
-version = ".".join(str(x) for x in ver_dic["VERSION"])
-# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
-release = ver_dic["VERSION_TEXT"]
+copyright = "2014-2024, Meshmode contributors"
+release = metadata.version("meshmode")
+version = ".".join(release.split(".")[:2])
 
 intersphinx_mapping = {
     "arraycontext": ("https://documen.tician.de/arraycontext", None),
diff --git a/meshmode/version.py b/meshmode/version.py
index e89038fa4dcc438e3f53c79d29da077f0b857efa..6784d82a59da5a8a7f9b8d3d2684d727ad42357f 100644
--- a/meshmode/version.py
+++ b/meshmode/version.py
@@ -1,2 +1,15 @@
-VERSION = (2021, 2)
-VERSION_TEXT = ".".join(str(i) for i in VERSION)
+from importlib import metadata
+from typing import Tuple
+
+
+def _parse_version(version: str) -> Tuple[Tuple[int, ...], str]:
+    import re
+
+    m = re.match("^([0-9.]+)([a-z0-9]*?)$", VERSION_TEXT)
+    assert m is not None
+
+    return tuple(int(nr) for nr in m.group(1).split(".")), m.group(2)
+
+
+VERSION_TEXT = metadata.version("meshmode")
+VERSION, VERSION_STATUS = _parse_version(VERSION_TEXT)