diff --git a/lib/internal/test_runner/coverage.js b/lib/internal/test_runner/coverage.js
index cdbece1eeae7c3..44c197d960c86a 100644
--- a/lib/internal/test_runner/coverage.js
+++ b/lib/internal/test_runner/coverage.js
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@ const kIgnoreRegex = /\/\* node:coverage ignore next (?<count>\d+ )?\*\//;
 const kLineEndingRegex = /\r?\n$/u;
 const kLineSplitRegex = /(?<=\r?\n)/u;
 const kStatusRegex = /\/\* node:coverage (?<status>enable|disable) \*\//;
+// Match dotfiles (e.g. `test/.foo.js`) when applying coverage globs so the
+// default exclude patterns cover them.
+const kMatchGlobPatternOptions = { __proto__: null, dot: true };
 const kTypeOnlyImportRegex = /^\s*import\s+type\b/u;
 const kTypeScriptSourceRegex = /\.(?:cts|mts|ts)$/u;
 
@@ -61,6 +64,14 @@ function getStripTypeScriptTypesForCoverage() {
   return stripTypeScriptTypesForCoverage;
 }
 
+function createCoverageMatcher(pattern) {
+  return {
+    __proto__: null,
+    relative: createMatcher(pattern, kMatchGlobPatternOptions),
+    absolute: createMatcher(pattern),
+  };
+}
+
 class CoverageLine {
   constructor(line, startOffset, src, length = src?.length) {
     const newlineLength = src == null ? 0 :
@@ -557,23 +568,28 @@ class TestCoverage {
     // TestCoverage instance, so compile each glob to a matcher once and reuse
     // it for every file. Building a fresh Minimatch per call (the previous
     // behavior) dominated the coverage report time, scaling with
-    // files * globs.
+    // files * globs. Each glob compiles to a matcher pair: `relative` enables
+    // dot:true so globs match dotfiles within the project, while `absolute`
+    // keeps the default behavior to avoid misinterpreting dot segments in the
+    // absolute filesystem path (e.g. tmp dirs like `test/.tmp.0`).
     this.#excludeMatchers ??= ArrayPrototypeMap(
-      this.options.coverageExcludeGlobs ?? [], (pattern) => createMatcher(pattern));
+      this.options.coverageExcludeGlobs ?? [], createCoverageMatcher);
     this.#includeMatchers ??= ArrayPrototypeMap(
-      this.options.coverageIncludeGlobs ?? [], (pattern) => createMatcher(pattern));
+      this.options.coverageIncludeGlobs ?? [], createCoverageMatcher);
 
     // This check filters out files that match the exclude globs.
     for (let i = 0; i < this.#excludeMatchers.length; ++i) {
       const matcher = this.#excludeMatchers[i];
-      if (matcher.match(relativePath) || matcher.match(absolutePath)) return true;
+      if (matcher.relative.match(relativePath) ||
+          matcher.absolute.match(absolutePath)) return true;
     }
 
     // This check filters out files that do not match the include globs.
     if (this.#includeMatchers.length > 0) {
       for (let i = 0; i < this.#includeMatchers.length; ++i) {
         const matcher = this.#includeMatchers[i];
-        if (matcher.match(relativePath) || matcher.match(absolutePath)) return false;
+        if (matcher.relative.match(relativePath) ||
+            matcher.absolute.match(absolutePath)) return false;
       }
       return true;
     }
diff --git a/test/fixtures/test-runner/coverage-default-exclusion/test/.dotfile.cjs b/test/fixtures/test-runner/coverage-default-exclusion/test/.dotfile.cjs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..ec0a4c24fffb3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/test-runner/coverage-default-exclusion/test/.dotfile.cjs
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+const test = require('node:test');
+const assert = require('node:assert');
+const { foo } = require('../logic-file.js');
+
+test('foo returns 1 from a dotfile test', () => {
+  assert.strictEqual(foo(), 1);
+});
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-runner-coverage-default-exclusion.mjs b/test/parallel/test-runner-coverage-default-exclusion.mjs
index 44e5f7600d3270..f6080612a37caa 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-runner-coverage-default-exclusion.mjs
+++ b/test/parallel/test-runner-coverage-default-exclusion.mjs
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ async function setupFixtures() {
   await cp(fixtureDir, tmpdir.path, { recursive: true });
 }
 
+function assertDefaultExclusions(stdout) {
+  assert.match(stdout, /# start of coverage report/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(stdout, /# file-test\.js\s+\|/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(stdout, /# file\.test\.mjs\s+\|/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(stdout, /# file\.test\.ts\s+\|/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(stdout, /# test\.cjs\s+\|/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(stdout, /#\s+not-matching-test-name\.js\s+\|/);
+  assert.match(stdout, /# end of coverage report/);
+}
+
 describe('test runner coverage default exclusion', skipIfNoInspector, () => {
   before(async () => {
     await setupFixtures();
@@ -58,18 +68,6 @@ describe('test runner coverage default exclusion', skipIfNoInspector, () => {
   });
 
   it('should exclude test files from coverage by default', async () => {
-    const report = [
-      '# start of coverage report',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# file          | line % | branch % | funcs % | uncovered lines',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# logic-file.js |  66.67 |   100.00 |   50.00 | 5-7',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# all files     |  66.67 |   100.00 |   50.00 | ',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# end of coverage report',
-    ].join('\n');
-
     const args = [
       '--no-experimental-strip-types',
       '--test',
@@ -82,23 +80,11 @@ describe('test runner coverage default exclusion', skipIfNoInspector, () => {
     });
 
     assert.strictEqual(result.stderr.toString(), '');
-    assert(result.stdout.toString().includes(report));
+    assertDefaultExclusions(result.stdout.toString());
     assert.strictEqual(result.status, 0);
   });
 
   it('should exclude ts test files', async () => {
-    const report = [
-      '# start of coverage report',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# file          | line % | branch % | funcs % | uncovered lines',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# logic-file.js |  66.67 |   100.00 |   50.00 | 5-7',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# all files     |  66.67 |   100.00 |   50.00 | ',
-      '# --------------------------------------------------------------',
-      '# end of coverage report',
-    ].join('\n');
-
     const args = [
       '--test',
       '--experimental-test-coverage',
@@ -111,7 +97,26 @@ describe('test runner coverage default exclusion', skipIfNoInspector, () => {
     });
 
     assert.strictEqual(result.stderr.toString(), '');
-    assert(result.stdout.toString().includes(report));
+    assertDefaultExclusions(result.stdout.toString());
+    assert.strictEqual(result.status, 0);
+  });
+
+  it('should exclude dotfile test files from coverage by default', async () => {
+    const args = [
+      '--no-experimental-strip-types',
+      '--test',
+      '--experimental-test-coverage',
+      '--test-reporter=tap',
+      'test/.dotfile.cjs',
+    ];
+    const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, args, {
+      env: { ...process.env, NODE_TEST_TMPDIR: tmpdir.path },
+      cwd: tmpdir.path
+    });
+
+    assert.strictEqual(result.stderr.toString(), '');
+    assertDefaultExclusions(result.stdout.toString());
+    assert.doesNotMatch(result.stdout.toString(), /#\s+\.dotfile\.cjs\s+\|/);
     assert.strictEqual(result.status, 0);
   });
 });