import re # Target String target_string = "Emma is a baseball player who was born on June 17, 1993." # find substring 'ball' result = re.search(r"ball", target_string) # Print matching substring print(result.group()) # output 'ball' # find exact word/substring surrounded by word boundary result = re.search(r"\bball\b", target_string) if result: print(result) # output None # find word 'player' result = re.search(r"\bplayer\b", target_string) print(result.group()) # output 'player'