diff --git a/src/selectors.cc b/src/selectors.cc
index 5282e7f6..2ac1168c 100644
--- a/src/selectors.cc
+++ b/src/selectors.cc
@@ -21,20 +21,9 @@ bool is_blank(char c)
 }
 
 template<bool punctuation_is_word = false>
-bool is_word(char c);
-
-template<>
-bool is_word<false>(char c)
+bool is_word(char c)
 {
-    if (c >= '0' and c <= '9')
-        return true;
-    if (c >= 'a' and c <= 'z')
-        return true;
-    if (c >= 'A' and c <= 'Z')
-        return true;
-    if (c == '_')
-        return true;
-    return false;
+    return Kakoune::is_word(c);
 }
 
 template<>
diff --git a/src/string.hh b/src/string.hh
index 8676c5da..2e8172c1 100644
--- a/src/string.hh
+++ b/src/string.hh
@@ -119,6 +119,14 @@ String int_to_str(int value);
 int    str_to_int(const String& str);
 std::vector<String> split(const String& str, Character separator);
 
+inline bool is_word(Character c)
+{
+    return (c >= '0' and c <= '9') or
+           (c >= 'a' and c <= 'z') or
+           (c >= 'A' and c <= 'Z') or
+           c == '_';
+}
+
 }
 
 namespace std