Use  ^ and $ in your regex (for the beginning and the end of the line) :

while (<>) {
  if ( /^\w{5}\s\w{4}$/ ) { 
    print "This is a 5-letter word followed by a four-letter word\n";

  }
}

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BTW: more details in perldoc perlre (it's a must read ;-)

In reply to Re: "Complete match" regexes by arhuman
in thread "Complete match" regexes by DeusVult

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