diff --git a/crates/editor/src/editor.rs b/crates/editor/src/editor.rs
index bd4fccf4a9..3333513290 100644
--- a/crates/editor/src/editor.rs
+++ b/crates/editor/src/editor.rs
@@ -10700,32 +10700,23 @@ pub fn styled_runs_for_code_label<'a>(
 }
 
 pub(crate) fn split_words(text: &str) -> impl std::iter::Iterator<Item = &str> + '_ {
-    let mut index = 0;
-    let mut codepoints = text.char_indices().peekable();
-
-    std::iter::from_fn(move || {
-        let start_index = index;
-        while let Some((new_index, codepoint)) = codepoints.next() {
-            index = new_index + codepoint.len_utf8();
-            let current_upper = codepoint.is_uppercase();
-            let next_upper = codepoints
-                .peek()
-                .map(|(_, c)| c.is_uppercase())
-                .unwrap_or(false);
-
-            if !current_upper && next_upper {
-                return Some(&text[start_index..index]);
+    let mut prev_index = 0;
+    let mut prev_codepoint: Option<char> = None;
+    text.char_indices()
+        .chain([(text.len(), '\0')])
+        .filter_map(move |(index, codepoint)| {
+            let prev_codepoint = prev_codepoint.replace(codepoint)?;
+            let is_boundary = index == text.len()
+                || !prev_codepoint.is_uppercase() && codepoint.is_uppercase()
+                || !prev_codepoint.is_alphanumeric() && codepoint.is_alphanumeric();
+            if is_boundary {
+                let chunk = &text[prev_index..index];
+                prev_index = index;
+                Some(chunk)
+            } else {
+                None
             }
-        }
-
-        index = text.len();
-        if start_index < text.len() {
-            return Some(&text[start_index..]);
-        }
-        None
-    })
-    .flat_map(|word| word.split_inclusive('_'))
-    .flat_map(|word| word.split_inclusive('-'))
+        })
 }
 
 trait RangeToAnchorExt {
diff --git a/crates/editor/src/editor_tests.rs b/crates/editor/src/editor_tests.rs
index 21a24817ea..c1db51fef8 100644
--- a/crates/editor/src/editor_tests.rs
+++ b/crates/editor/src/editor_tests.rs
@@ -7442,6 +7442,8 @@ fn test_split_words() {
     assert_eq!(split("Hello_World"), &["Hello_", "World"]);
     assert_eq!(split("helloWOrld"), &["hello", "WOrld"]);
     assert_eq!(split("helloworld"), &["helloworld"]);
+
+    assert_eq!(split(":do_the_thing"), &[":", "do_", "the_", "thing"]);
 }
 
 #[gpui::test]
diff --git a/crates/languages/src/ruby/config.toml b/crates/languages/src/ruby/config.toml
index 3784952f6c..54072d801b 100644
--- a/crates/languages/src/ruby/config.toml
+++ b/crates/languages/src/ruby/config.toml
@@ -37,4 +37,3 @@ brackets = [
     ] },
 ]
 collapsed_placeholder = "# ..."
-word_characters = ["_", "$", "=", "@", "!", ":", "?"]
diff --git a/crates/languages/src/ruby/overrides.scm b/crates/languages/src/ruby/overrides.scm
index 8a58e304e5..7ff82bd345 100644
--- a/crates/languages/src/ruby/overrides.scm
+++ b/crates/languages/src/ruby/overrides.scm
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 (comment) @comment
 (string) @string
+[(simple_symbol) (delimited_symbol)] @simple_symbol