An alternative: 
/^a($|b($|b($|r($|e($|v($|i($|a($|t($|i($|o($|n$)))))))))))/

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In both yours and mine, (?:...) would be faster than (...). I left it as is for the sake of simplicity.

Of course, the simpliest solution would be substr($word, 0, length($str)) eq $str, but it's non-regexp.

In reply to Re: Abbreviation regex? by ikegami
in thread Abbreviation regex? by bsb

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