diff --git a/actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb b/actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb
index cf5c1b0e81..b859653bc9 100644
--- a/actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb
+++ b/actionview/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ module ActionView
           end
         end
 
-        first_part, second_part = text.split(regex, 2)
+        first_part, second_part = text.split(phrase, 2)
 
         prefix, first_part   = cut_excerpt_part(:first, first_part, separator, options)
         postfix, second_part = cut_excerpt_part(:second, second_part, separator, options)
diff --git a/actionview/test/template/text_helper_test.rb b/actionview/test/template/text_helper_test.rb
index 858232a2b9..db416a8de4 100644
--- a/actionview/test/template/text_helper_test.rb
+++ b/actionview/test/template/text_helper_test.rb
@@ -280,8 +280,13 @@ class TextHelperTest < ActionView::TestCase
   end
 
   def test_excerpt_with_regex
+    assert_equal('...is a beautiful! mor...', excerpt('This is a beautiful! morning', 'beautiful', :radius => 5))
+    assert_equal('...is a beautiful? mor...', excerpt('This is a beautiful? morning', 'beautiful', :radius => 5))
+    assert_equal('...is a beautiful? mor...', excerpt('This is a beautiful? morning', /\bbeau\w*\b/i, :radius => 5))
+    assert_equal('...is a beautiful? mor...', excerpt('This is a beautiful? morning', /\b(beau\w*)\b/i, :radius => 5))
     assert_equal("...udge Allen and...", excerpt("This day was challenging for judge Allen and his colleagues.", /\ballen\b/i, :radius => 5))
     assert_equal("...judge Allen and...", excerpt("This day was challenging for judge Allen and his colleagues.", /\ballen\b/i, :radius => 1, :separator => ' '))
+    assert_equal("...was challenging for...", excerpt("This day was challenging for judge Allen and his colleagues.", /\b(\w*allen\w*)\b/i, :radius => 5))
   end
 
   def test_excerpt_should_not_be_html_safe
@@ -305,11 +310,6 @@ class TextHelperTest < ActionView::TestCase
     assert_equal("...abc...", excerpt("z  abc  d", "b", :radius => 1))
   end
 
-  def test_excerpt_with_regex
-    assert_equal('...is a beautiful! mor...', excerpt('This is a beautiful! morning', 'beautiful', :radius => 5))
-    assert_equal('...is a beautiful? mor...', excerpt('This is a beautiful? morning', 'beautiful', :radius => 5))
-  end
-
   def test_excerpt_with_omission
     assert_equal("[...]is a beautiful morn[...]", excerpt("This is a beautiful morning", "beautiful", :omission => "[...]",:radius => 5))
     assert_equal(