##
[ # start char class
\w # any word char
[ # or a literal '['
^ # or a literal '^'
_ # or an underscore (redundant...)
] # end char class
] # followed by a literal ']'
####
[^\W_]
####
% perl -le '/[^\W_]/ && print for qw(a b _ c d)'
a
b
c
d