use 5.020;
use Regexp::Assemble;

my $re = Regexp::Assemble->new;
for('blah', 'bleh', 'chicken', 'woofie', 'snake', 'snakes', 'woofies', 'chicken-woofy'){
    $re->add("\Q$_");
}

say $re->re;

my $newre = qr/blah|bleh|chicken|woofie|snake|snakes|woofies|chicken-woofy/;
say $newre;


##</code><code>##

(?^:(?:chicken(?:-woofy)?|woofies?|bl[ae]h|snakes?))
(?^u:(blah)|(bleh)|(chicken)|(woofie)|(snake)|(snakes)|(woofies)|(chicken-woofy))