While internal climate variability is known to affect climate projections, its influence is often underappreciated and confused with model error. Why? In general, modeling centers contribute a small number of realizations to international climate model assessments (e.g., Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5)). As a result, model error and internal climate variability are difficult, and at times impossible, to disentangle. In response, the Community Earth System Model (CESM) community designed the CESM Large Ensemble (CESMWLE) with the explicit goal of enabling assessment of climate change in the presence of internal climate variability. All CESM-LE simulations use a single CMIP5 model (CESM with the Community Atmosphere Model version 5). The core simulations replay the 20- 21st century (1920-2080) 30 times under historical and Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 external forcing with small initial condition differences. Two companion 1000-year long pre-industrial control simulations (coupled, atmospheric) allow assessment of internal climate variability in the absence of climate change. Comprehensive outputs, including many daily fields, are available as single-variable time series on the Earth System Grid for anyone to use. Early results demonstrate the substantial influence of internal climate variability on 20^th-21st century climate trajectories. Global warming hiatus decades occur, similar to those recently observed. Internal climate variability alone can produce projection spread comparable to that in CMIP5. Scientists and stakeholders can use CESM-LE outputs to help interpret the observational record, to understand projection spread, and to plan for a range of possible futures influenced by both internal climate variability and forced climate change.