c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $s = '123 annn xyzzy wwwewww xxx9xxx vvv_vvv eieio p pp ppp 2015 vwxz vwxzpdq'; ;; my $consonant = qr{ [^\W\d_aeiouyAEIUOY] }xms; ;; printf qq{'$_' } for $s =~ m{ $consonant{4,} }xmsg; " 'vwxz' 'vwxzpdq'