diff --git a/syntax/cmake.nanorc b/syntax/cmake.nanorc
index 524c842d5183fd9e5dd62e8137963c1677474dfd..32633aafede101f3d5146875be51c5524228e202 100644
--- a/syntax/cmake.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/cmake.nanorc
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ comment "#"
 icolor green "^[[:space:]]*[A-Z0-9_]+"
 icolor brightyellow "^[[:space:]]*(include|include_directories|include_external_msproject)\>"
 
-icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*\<((else|end)?if|else|(end)?while|(end)?foreach|break)\>"
-color brightgreen "\<(NOT|COMMAND|POLICY|TARGET|EXISTS|IS_(DIRECTORY|ABSOLUTE)|DEFINED)\>[[:space:]]"
-color brightgreen "[[:space:]]\<(OR|AND|IS_NEWER_THAN|MATCHES|(STR|VERSION_)?(LESS|GREATER|EQUAL))\>[[:space:]]"
+icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*((else|end)?if|else|(end)?while|(end)?foreach|break)\>"
+color brightgreen "\<(NOT|COMMAND|POLICY|TARGET|EXISTS|IS_(DIRECTORY|ABSOLUTE)|DEFINED)[[:space:]]"
+color brightgreen "[[:space:]](OR|AND|IS_NEWER_THAN|MATCHES|(STR|VERSION_)?(LESS|GREATER|EQUAL))[[:space:]]"
 
-icolor brightred "^[[:space:]]*\<((end)?(function|macro)|return)"
+icolor brightred "^[[:space:]]*((end)?(function|macro)|return)"
 
 icolor cyan start="\$(\{|ENV\{)" end="\}"
 color magenta "\<(APPLE|UNIX|WIN32|CYGWIN|BORLAND|MINGW|MSVC(_IDE|60|71|80|90)?)\>"
diff --git a/syntax/gentoo.nanorc b/syntax/gentoo.nanorc
index eb2877bbb1ff9fd2148040b91a5a9e5d6ab88790..330db66198bb4f7e25555a0153d049da9c74e364 100644
--- a/syntax/gentoo.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/gentoo.nanorc
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ color red "\<EBUILD_PHASE(_FUNC)?\>"
 color red "\<QA_((TEXTRELS|EXECSTACK|WX_LOAD)(_[a-zA-Z_0-9]+)?|DT_HASH|PRESTRIPPED)\>"
 color red "\<(PATCHES|(HTML_)?DOCS)\>" "\<WANT_(AUTO(CONF|MAKE)|LIBTOOL)\>" "\<AT_M4DIR\>"
 ## Portage commands:
-color magenta "\<(use(_(with|enable|if_iuse)|x)?|in_iuse)\> [!a-zA-Z0-9_+ -]*" "inherit.*"
+color magenta "\<(use(_(with|enable|if_iuse)|x)?|in_iuse) [!a-zA-Z0-9_+ -]*" "inherit.*"
 color brightblue "\<e(begin|end|conf|install|make|qmake4|ant|(qa)?warn|infon?|error|log|patch(_user)?|new(group|user))\>"
 color brightblue "\<e(pause|beep|mktemp|(cvs|svn)_clean|punt_cxx)\>" "\<e(aclocal|auto(reconf|header|conf|make)|libtoolize)\>"
 color brightblue "\<e(stack|shopts|umask)_(push|pop)\>" "\<version_is_at_least\>"
diff --git a/syntax/lua.nanorc b/syntax/lua.nanorc
index 3692f615be945311b45e9f5a88ffcb595faf0ebf..73a229965d3d41c9a64132309e79c929a8d52e57 100644
--- a/syntax/lua.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/lua.nanorc
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ color brightyellow ":|\*|/|%|\+|-|\^|>|>=|<|<=|~=|=|\.\.|\<(not|and|or)\>"
 color brightblue "\<(do|end|while|repeat|until|if|elseif|then|else|for|in|function|local|return|break)\>"
 
 # Keywords
-color brightyellow "\<(io|math|os|string|table|coroutine|debug)\>\."
+color brightyellow "\<(io|math|os|string|table|coroutine|debug)\."
 color brightyellow "\<(_G|_VERSION|assert|collectgarbage|dofile|error|getfenv|getmetatable|ipairs|load|loadfile|module|next|pairs|pcall|print|rawequal|rawget|rawset|require|select|setfenv|setmetatable|tonumber|tostring|type|unpack|xpcall)\s*\("
 
 # Standard library
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ color brightyellow "\<debug\.(debug|getfenv|gethook|getinfo|getlocal|getmetatabl
 color brightyellow "\<debug\.(setfenv|sethook|setlocal|setmetatable|setupvalue|traceback)\>"
 
 # File handle methods
-color brightyellow "\:\<(close|flush|lines|read|seek|setvbuf|write)\>"
+color brightyellow ":(close|flush|lines|read|seek|setvbuf|write)\>"
 
 # false, nil, true
 color brightmagenta "\<(false|nil|true)\>"
diff --git a/syntax/objc.nanorc b/syntax/objc.nanorc
index ff5ea40f64fb9c43650d7091553bc0e320b303b6..70fb6c6ef170e15b2b1c0bfc872fca30e89a91ff 100644
--- a/syntax/objc.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/objc.nanorc
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ color green "\<(class|namespace|template|public|protected|private|typename|this|
 color brightgreen "\<(for|if|while|do|else|case|default|switch)\>"
 color brightgreen "\<(try|throw|catch|operator|new|delete)\>"
 color brightgreen "\<(goto|continue|break|return)\>"
-color brightgreen "@\<(en(code|d)|i(mplementation|nterface)|selector)\>"
+color brightgreen "@(encode|end|implementation|interface)|selector)\>"
 
 # GCC builtins.
 color cyan "__attribute__[[:space:]]*\(\([^)]*\)\)" "__(aligned|asm|builtin|hidden|inline|packed|restrict|section|typeof|weak)__"
diff --git a/syntax/po.nanorc b/syntax/po.nanorc
index 2adbb5f98d4ad433688aa94aa0ab68030b76b6b9..526c1c2fe4215785a6572a206eb5767f5d0b7c1e 100644
--- a/syntax/po.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/po.nanorc
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ color brightred "^\"X-Bugs:.*\"$"
 color brightmagenta "\<(Project\-Id\-Version|Report\-Msgid\-Bugs\-To|Last\-Translator|Language(\-Team)?|X-Bugs|X-Generator|Plural\-Forms)\>"
 color cyan "\<(POT\-Creation\-Date|PO\-Revision\-Date|MIME\-Version|Content\-Type|Content\-Transfer\-Encoding)\>"
 # Encodings and numbers.
-color yellow "\<(UTF|ISO|Windows|Mac|IBM)\>\-[0-9]"
+color yellow "\<(UTF|ISO|Windows|Mac|IBM)-[0-9]+"
 color yellow "[0-9]|pre[0-9]|[0-9]bit"
 # Msgids.
 color brightblue "^(msgid|msgid_plural|msgstr)\>"
diff --git a/syntax/pov.nanorc b/syntax/pov.nanorc
index 7c5d764be583eaf7912141a3b891dfd2361a9e1d..7c14f7f397a709fb3c8b9391bb6e727122b96994 100644
--- a/syntax/pov.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/pov.nanorc
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ color brightcyan "^[[:space:]]*#[[:space:]]*(declare)"
 color brightyellow "\<(sphere|cylinder|translate|matrix|rotate|scale)\>"
 color brightyellow "\<(orthographic|location|up|right|direction|clipped_by)\>"
 color brightyellow "\<(fog_type|fog_offset|fog_alt|rgb|distance|transform)\>"
-color brightred "^\<(texture)\>"
+color brightred "^texture\>"
 color brightred "\<(light_source|background)\>"
 color brightred "\<(fog|object|camera)\>"
 color green "(\{|\}|\(|\)|\;|\]|\[|`|\\|\$|<|>|!|=|&|\|)"