diff --git a/src/richtext/richtextctrl.cpp b/src/richtext/richtextctrl.cpp
index 6e81260692..2a8b344a35 100644
--- a/src/richtext/richtextctrl.cpp
+++ b/src/richtext/richtextctrl.cpp
@@ -1610,8 +1610,7 @@ void wxRichTextCtrl::SelectNone()
 
 static bool wxIsWordDelimiter(const wxString& text)
 {
-    static wxString delimiters = wxT(" ,.:;!?-\"'~£$%^&*()_+-={}[]@#<>/\\|");
-    return !text.IsEmpty() && delimiters.Find(text) != wxNOT_FOUND;
+    return !text.IsEmpty() && !wxIsalnum(text[0]);
 }
 
 /// Select the word at the given character position