diff --git a/phpBB/includes/functions_search.php b/phpBB/includes/functions_search.php
index 3cad94092e..07b9ec9e3e 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/functions_search.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/functions_search.php
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ function clean_words($mode, &$entry, &$stopword_list, &$synonym_list)
 
 function split_words(&$entry, $mode = 'post')
 {
-	$rex = ( $mode == 'post' ) ? "/\b([\w±µ-ÿ][\w±µ-ÿ']*[\w±µ-ÿ]+|[\w±µ-ÿ]+?)\b/" : '/(\*?[a-z±µ-ÿ]+\*?)|\b([a-z±µ-ÿ]+)\b/';
+	$rex = ( $mode == 'post' ) ? "/\b([\w±µ-ÿ][\w±µ-ÿ']*[\w±µ-ÿ]+|[\w±µ-ÿ]+?)\b/" : '/(\*?[a-z0-9±µ-ÿ]+\*?)|\b([a-z0-9±µ-ÿ]+)\b/';
 	preg_match_all($rex, $entry, $split_entries);
 
 	return $split_entries[1];