diff --git a/test/textProcessing.bats b/test/textProcessing.bats
index bb1dc0f..a53f039 100755
--- a/test/textProcessing.bats
+++ b/test/textProcessing.bats
@@ -131,6 +131,12 @@ _testCleanString_() {
     assert_output "this is a-string"
   }
 
+    @test "_cleanString_: alnum w/ spaces and dashes and regex replace" {
+    run _cleanString_ -asp "-|_|st, " "th_is(is)a-string"
+    assert_success
+    assert_output "th is is a ring"
+  }
+
   @test "_cleanString_: user replacement" {
     run _cleanString_ -p "e,g" "there should be a lot of e's in this sentence"
     assert_success
diff --git a/utilities/textProcessing.bash b/utilities/textProcessing.bash
index 010e6c3..2eb0368 100644
--- a/utilities/textProcessing.bash
+++ b/utilities/textProcessing.bash
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ _cleanString_() {
     #         -s  In combination with -a, replaces characters with a space
     # OUTS:   Prints result to STDOUT
     # USAGE:  _cleanString_ [OPT] [STRING] [CHARS TO REMOVE]
-    #         _cleanString_ -p " ,-" [STRING] [CHARS TO REMOVE]
+    #         _cleanString_ -lp " ,-" [STRING] [CHARS TO REMOVE]
     # NOTES:  Always cleaned:
     #           - leading white space
     #           - trailing white space
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ _cleanString_() {
     fi
 
     if "${replace}"; then
-        string="$(echo "${string}" | sed "s/${pairs[0]}/${pairs[1]}/g")"
+        string="$(echo "${string}" | sed -E "s/${pairs[0]}/${pairs[1]}/g")"
     fi
 
     # trim trailing/leading white space and duplicate dashes