$re = '/(?<=prefix: )(<em>(\w*\d*)<\/em>)/';
$str = '<em>word1</em> <em>word2</em> <em>word3</em>
prefix: <em>word4</em> <em>word5</em>
<em>word6</em> <em>word7</em>';
preg_match_all($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