$re = '/\bwordA\s+((\w+\s+){3})wordX\b/';
$str = 'wordA wordB wordC wordD wordX <= 3
wordA wordB wordC wordX <= 2
wordA wordB wordX <= 1
wordA wordX <= 0';
preg_match_all($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