diff --git a/rc/filetype/elm.kak b/rc/filetype/elm.kak
index 78755967..014c4592 100644
--- a/rc/filetype/elm.kak
+++ b/rc/filetype/elm.kak
@@ -42,9 +42,9 @@ add-highlighter shared/elm/string        region         '"'     (?<!\\)(\\\\)*"
 add-highlighter shared/elm/line_comment  region         (--) $                        fill comment
 add-highlighter shared/elm/comment       region         -recurse \{- \{-   -\}        fill comment
 
-add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \b([A-Z]+[^\s]*)\b                                                  0:type 
-add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \b([a-z]+[^\s]*)\b                                                  0:variable
-add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \b(^[a-z]+[^\s]*)\b                                                 0:function
+add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \b[A-Z]\w*\b                                                        0:type
+add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \b[a-z]\w*\b                                                        0:variable
+add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex ^[a-z]\w*\b                                                         0:function
 add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex "-?\b[0-9]*\.?[0-9]+"                                               0:value
 add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \B[-+<>!@#$%^&*=:/\\|]+\B                                           0:operator
 add-highlighter shared/elm/code/ regex \b(import|exposing|as|module|port)\b                                0:meta