diff --git a/docs/text.md b/docs/text.md
index c8a105d..3e6ed0d 100644
--- a/docs/text.md
+++ b/docs/text.md
@@ -337,6 +337,7 @@ mostly ignore spaces, underscores, and dashes.
 - `start` - the very start of the text
 - `uri` - a URI
 - `url` - a URL (URI that specifically starts with `http://`, `https://`, `ws://`, `wss://`, or `ftp://`)
+- `word` - A unicode identifier (same as `id`)
 
 For non-alphabetic characters, any single character is treated as matching
 exactly that character. For example, `{1{}` matches exactly one `{`
diff --git a/stdlib/patterns.c b/stdlib/patterns.c
index bee8476..6a9b1a5 100644
--- a/stdlib/patterns.c
+++ b/stdlib/patterns.c
@@ -654,6 +654,11 @@ static pat_t parse_next_pat(TextIter_t *state, int64_t *index)
                 return PAT(PAT_FUNCTION, .fn=match_url);
             }
             break;
+        case 'w':
+            if (strcasecmp(prop_name, "word") == 0) {
+                return PAT(PAT_FUNCTION, .fn=match_id);
+            }
+            break;
         default: break;
         }