Examples:
Breakdown
(start of capturing group 1\w+a word character (letter, digit, or underscore), one or more times)end of group@the literal character "@"(start of capturing group 2\w+a word character (letter, digit, or underscore), one or more times\.the literal character "."\w+a word character (letter, digit, or underscore), one or more times)end of groupFlags
g — find all matches, not just the first
i — case-insensitive matching
Understand any regex pattern in plain English
Paste a regular expression and get a readable, part-by-part explanation of exactly what it does — no more squinting at cryptic symbols. Covers groups, character classes, quantifiers, anchors, lookarounds, and backreferences, with nesting shown clearly.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does this tool do?
- It parses your regex pattern and breaks it down piece by piece — groups, character classes, quantifiers, anchors, escapes — explaining what each part means in plain English, similar to regex101's explanation panel.
- Does it validate my regex?
- Yes. If the pattern has invalid syntax, you'll see an "Invalid regex" error with the JavaScript engine's message instead of a breakdown.
- Does it support groups, lookaheads, and backreferences?
- Yes — capturing groups, named groups, non-capturing groups, lookaheads/lookbehinds (positive and negative), backreferences, character classes, and all standard quantifiers are explained, with nesting shown via indentation.
- Can I test the pattern after decoding it?
- Yes. Click "Test in Regex Tester" to open the same pattern and flags there, with live match highlighting against a test string.