#!/usr/bin/perl -w use 5.010; # want named captures use strict; use warnings; my @reglist = ( qr/food?/, qr/b[a4]rd?/, qr/baz(o+ka)?/ ); my $i; # regex index my $giant_regex = join "|", map { $i++; "(?$_)" } @reglist; $giant_regex = qr/($giant_regex)/; foreach (qw(foobarbaz football barcode none bazoooooka)) { $_ =~ m/$giant_regex/; my @match = keys %+; print "@match\n"; }