c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $str = 'xyzxyzxyz - Prod Cache Broker - 16100'; ;; my $word = qr{ [[:alpha:]]+ }xms; ;; my ($phrase) = $str =~ m{ - \s+ ($word (?: \s+ $word)*) }xms; print qq{'$phrase'}; " 'Prod Cache Broker'