$re = '/(?<=:)[A-Za-z]+/m';
$str = 'a:b
a.in:b
asds.sdsd:b
a:b___a.sds:bc___ab:bd';
$subst = "replaced";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
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