diff --git a/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py b/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py
index e97875883f..d6aa21fc21 100644
--- a/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py
+++ b/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py
@@ -770,8 +770,8 @@ class AlertWordsNotificationProcessor(markdown.preprocessors.Preprocessor):
             realm_words = db_data['realm_alert_words']
             content = '\n'.join(lines).lower()
 
-            allowed_before_punctuation = "|".join([r'\s', '^', r'[\(\".,\';\[]'])
-            allowed_after_punctuation = "|".join([r'\s', '$', r'[\)\"\?:.,\';\]!]'])
+            allowed_before_punctuation = "|".join([r'\s', '^', r'[\(\".,\';\[\*`>]'])
+            allowed_after_punctuation = "|".join([r'\s', '$', r'[\)\"\?:.,\';\]!\*`]'])
 
             for user_id, words in realm_words.iteritems():
                 for word in words: