Regex match entire words only

Question

I have a regex expression that I\'m using to find all the words in a given block of content, case insensitive, that are contained in a glossary stored in a database. Here\'s

Answer 1

Use word boundaries:

/\b($word)\b/i

Or if you're searching for "S.P.E.C.T.R.E." like in Sinan Ünür's example:

/(?:\W|^)(\Q$word\E)(?:\W|$)/i