diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index 3938c5c..530d0f7 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ function encodeAttr(str) {
 
 /** Parse Markdown into an HTML String. */
 export default function parse(md, prevLinks) {
-	let tokenizer = /((?:^|\n+)(?:\n---+|\* \*(?: \*)+)\n)|(?:^``` *(\w*)\n([\s\S]*?)\n```$)|((?:(?:^|\n+)(?:\t|  {2,}).+)+\n*)|((?:(?:^|\n)([>*+-]|\d+\.)\s+.*)+)|(?:!\[([^\]]*?)\]\(([^)]+?)\))|(\[)|(\](?:\(([^)]+?)\))?)|(?:(?:^|\n+)([^\s].*)\n(-{3,}|={3,})(?:\n+|$))|(?:(?:^|\n+)(#{1,6})\s*(.+)(?:\n+|$))|(?:`([^`].*?)`)|(  \n\n*|\n{2,}|__|\*\*|[_*]|~~)/gm,
+	let tokenizer = /((?:^|\n+)(?:\n---+|\* \*(?: \*)+)\n)|(?:^``` *(\w*)\n([\s\S]*?)\n```$)|((?:(?:^|\n+)(?:\t|  {2,}).+)+\n*)|((?:(?:^|\n)([>*+-]|\d+\.)\s+.*)+)|(?:!\[([^\]]*?)\]\(([^)]+?)\))|(\[)|(\](?:\(([^)]+?)\))?)|(?:(?:^|\n+)([^\s].*)\n(-{3,}|={3,})(?:\n+|$))|(?:(?:^|\n+)(#{1,6})\s*(.+)(?:\n+|$))|(?:`([^`].*?)`)|(  \n\n*|\n{2,}|(?<=\W|^|$)(?<![_*])__|__(?=\W|^|$)(?![_*])|(?<=\W|^|$)(?<![_*])\*\*|\*\*(?=\W|^|$)(?![_*])|(?<=\W|^|$)(?<![_*])[_*]|[_*](?=\W|^|$)(?![_*])|~~)/gm,
 		context = [],
 		out = '',
 		links = prevLinks || {},
diff --git a/test/index.js b/test/index.js
index 5262b16..a929ad5 100644
--- a/test/index.js
+++ b/test/index.js
@@ -18,6 +18,13 @@ describe('snarkdown()', () => {
 		it('parses italics with _', () => {
 			expect(snarkdown('I _like_ tiny libraries')).to.equal('I <em>like</em> tiny libraries');
 		});
+
+		it('ignores words with special formatting', () => {
+			expect(snarkdown('I like tiny*libraries')).to.equal('I like tiny*libraries');
+			expect(snarkdown('I like tiny_libraries')).to.equal('I like tiny_libraries');
+			expect(snarkdown('I like tiny**libraries')).to.equal('I like tiny**libraries');
+			expect(snarkdown('I like tiny__libraries')).to.equal('I like tiny__libraries');
+		});
 	});
 
 	describe('titles', () => {