m/(?x) ((?:blah){3}) ## match w/ capture: blahblahblah / #### ... =~ m/(?x) \A ## match w/ capture: one or more alpha, punct, or space posix characters ( [[:alpha:][:punct:][:space:]]+ ) \z /; ## and ... =~ m/(?x) \A ## match w/capture: one or more alpha posix characters ( [[:alpha:]]+ ) \z /; #### .