diff --git a/src/kakrc b/src/kakrc
index c5e053ca..0115b52c 100644
--- a/src/kakrc
+++ b/src/kakrc
@@ -20,3 +20,14 @@ def -shell-params runtime %{ %sh{
         done
     fi
 }
+
+# define color scheme
+colalias value red
+colalias type yellow
+colalias identifier cyan
+colalias string magenta
+colalias error default,red
+colalias keyword blue
+colalias attribute green
+colalias comment cyan
+colalias macro magenta
diff --git a/src/rc/cpp.kak b/src/rc/cpp.kak
index 93f7ccba..ff5bead2 100644
--- a/src/rc/cpp.kak
+++ b/src/rc/cpp.kak
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ hook global BufOpen .* %{ %sh{
 
 hook global WinSetOption filetype=cpp %{
     addhl group cpp-highlight
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(this|true|false|NULL|nullptr|)\>|\<-?\d+[fdiu]?|'((\\.)?|[^'\\])'" 0:red
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(void|int|char|unsigned|float|bool|size_t)\>" 0:yellow
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(while|for|if|else|do|switch|case|default|goto|break|continue|return|using|try|catch|throw|new|delete|and|or|not)\>" 0:blue
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(const|auto|namespace|inline|static|volatile|class|struct|enum|union|public|protected|private|template|typedef|virtual|friend|extern|typename)\>" 0:green
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "(?<!')\"(\\\"|[^\"])*\"" 0:magenta
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "(\`|(?<=\n))\h*#\h*[^\n]*" 0:magenta
-    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "(//[^\n]*\n)|(/\*.*?(\*/|\'))" 0:cyan
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(this|true|false|NULL|nullptr|)\>|\<-?\d+[fdiu]?|'((\\.)?|[^'\\])'" 0:value
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(void|int|char|unsigned|float|bool|size_t)\>" 0:type
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(while|for|if|else|do|switch|case|default|goto|break|continue|return|using|try|catch|throw|new|delete|and|or|not)\>" 0:keyword
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "\<(const|auto|namespace|inline|static|volatile|class|struct|enum|union|public|protected|private|template|typedef|virtual|friend|extern|typename)\>" 0:attribute
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "(?<!')\"(\\\"|[^\"])*\"" 0:string
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "(\`|(?<=\n))\h*#\h*[^\n]*" 0:macro
+    addhl -group cpp-highlight regex "(//[^\n]*\n)|(/\*.*?(\*/|\'))" 0:comment
     addfilter group cpp-filters;
     addfilter -group cpp-filters preserve_indent;
     addfilter -group cpp-filters cleanup_whitespaces;
diff --git a/src/rc/kakrc.kak b/src/rc/kakrc.kak
index b68ac58e..e2159efd 100644
--- a/src/rc/kakrc.kak
+++ b/src/rc/kakrc.kak
@@ -5,12 +5,12 @@ hook global BufCreate (.*/)?(kakrc|.*.kak) %{
 hook global WinSetOption filetype=kak %{
     addhl group kak-highlight
     addhl -group kak-highlight regex \<(hook|addhl|rmhl|addfilter|rmfilter|exec|source|runtime|def|echo|edit|set[gbw])\> 0:green
-    addhl -group kak-highlight regex \<(default|black|red|green|yellow|blue|magenta|cyan|white)\> 0:yellow
-    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (?<=\<hook)\h+((global|buffer|window)|(\S+))\h+(\S+)\h+(\H+) 2:blue 3:red 4:cyan 5:magenta
-    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (?<=\<regex)\h+(\S+) 1:magenta
-    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (["'])(?:\\\1|.)*?\1 0:magenta
-    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (?<=\<set[gbw])\h+(\S+)\h+(\S+) 1:magenta 2:red
-    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (^|\h)\#[^\n]*\n 0:cyan
+    addhl -group kak-highlight regex \<(default|black|red|green|yellow|blue|magenta|cyan|white)\> 0:value
+    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (?<=\<hook)\h+((global|buffer|window)|(\S+))\h+(\S+)\h+(\H+) 2:attribute 3:error 4:cyan 5:string
+    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (?<=\<regex)\h+(\S+) 1:string
+    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (["'])(?:\\\1|.)*?\1 0:string
+    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (?<=\<set[gbw])\h+(\S+)\h+(\S+) 1:identifier 2:value
+    addhl -group kak-highlight regex (^|\h)\#[^\n]*\n 0:comment
 }
 
 hook global WinSetOption filetype=(?!kak).* %{