$re = '/(<tag2>.*?</tag2>)|<tag>(?:(?!<tag\s?>).)*
/mix';
$str = 'This <tag2>is a WORD</tag2> --- Match
<TAG><TAG2>xxx</TAG2></TAG> --- Not a match
<TAG>xxxxxxx<TAG2>yyyy</TAG2>xxxxxxx</TAG> --- Not a match';
preg_match_all($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