hi everybody,
after many hours on internet, I must acknowledge I can't find any solution in order to exclude words from results a REGEX.
I use regular expressions in a spreadsheet connecte to a "replace with dictionary" operator.
Some REGEX capture too many words.
one example:
- the REGEX: (?i)\b(([l|d]['])*ap+(l*i*e*o*|cation)*s*)\b
- returns all words I need (app, applie, application, l'app, d'application, etc.)
- but also "apple", "appel", "l'appel", etc
I failed in my different tries with the "look behind" expression...
it's ok while I split the problem and create two REGEX (one for "app" another for application and of variants of both):
(?i)\b(([l|d][' ]*)*ap+s*)\b |
(?i)\b(([l|d][' ])*ap+l+(i|ie|ic+ation|oc+ation)*s*)\b
|
but the goal was to find a smarter way within one REGEX

see example set and regex in this google sheet :
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14hyPlwrPLxDv-F4yAVOXH8wlN-RMtumnZYOZh1gOOPs/edit?usp=sharingthanks for your help!