Normally, you'd be able to use \b.

my $whitespace = qr/[\s()]+/;
my $badwords   = qr/.../i;
my $wordchar   = qr/[a-zA-Z]/;

s/ $whitespace? \b $badwords \b $whitespace? / /xg;
[download]

But since you want to allow "12345Red6789", you'll have to implement your own version of \b.

my $whitespace = qr/[\s()]+/;
my $badwords   = qr/.../i;
my $wordchar   = qr/[a-zA-Z]/;

s/
   $whitespace?
   (?<! $wordchar )  # At start of word.
   $badwords         # Words to erase.
   (?! $wordchar )   # At end of word.
   $whitespace?
/ /xg;           # Avoid joining two numbers.
[download]

By the way, Regexp::List can build an efficient $badwords.

use Regexp::List qw( );
my @badwords = qw( r rd red );
my $badwords = Regexp::List->new(modifiers=>'i')->list2re(@badwords);
# qr/r(?:e?d)?/i
[download]

Update: Added Regexp::List bit.

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