The regular expression: (?-imsx:^<\/script>\s+-->) matches as follows: NODE EXPLANATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (?-imsx: group, but do not capture (case-sensitive) (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not matching \n) (matching whitespace and # normally): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ^ the beginning of the string ---------------------------------------------------------------------- < '<' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \/ '/' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- script> 'script>' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \s+ whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or more times (matching the most amount possible)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --> '-->' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ) end of grouping ----------------------------------------------------------------------