This kinda sounds like homework. You might try typing the following command at your command prompt. 
perldoc perlre

[download]
Check out the \w match symbol, and ask yourself why you're using all these * in a regex when the problem as stated says +.

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[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

In reply to Re: Strip user-defined words with regexp by halley
in thread Strip user-defined words with regexp by Marcello

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