$re = '/\[NUM]\s*(?:hour|minute|time)s?\b|!|\?{2}/m';
$str = 'Is it possible to apply [NUM] times
Is it possible to apply [NUM] time
Called [NUM] hour ago
waited [NUM] hours
waiting [NUM] minute
waiting [NUM] minutes???
Are you kidding me !
Waiting?';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php