$re = '/(?<![^\W\d_])(?:lemon|apple|coconut)(?![^\W\d_])/m';
$str = '/var/prj/lemon_123/xyz
/var/prj/123_apple/coconut
/var/prj/lemonade/coconutapple
/var/prj/apple/lemon';
preg_match_all($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