diff --git a/data/syntax/rest.xml b/data/syntax/rest.xml
--- a/data/syntax/rest.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/rest.xml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
   Copyright 2010 Matt Williams (matt@milliams.com)
   Copyright 2014 Matthew Woehlke (mw_triad@users.sourceforge.net)
   -->
-<language name="reStructuredText" extensions="*.rst" section="Markup" mimetype="text/x-rst" version="2" kateversion="2.4" casesensitive="1">
+<language name="reStructuredText" extensions="*.rst" section="Markup" mimetype="text/x-rst" version="3" kateversion="2.4" casesensitive="1">
 
   <highlighting>
 
@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@
         <RegExpr attribute="Citation" context="#stay" String="^\s*\.\. \[[&SimpleReferenceNameChars;]+\]\s" minimal="true" column="0"/>
         <RegExpr attribute="HyperlinkTarget" context="#stay" String="^\s*(\.\. (__:|_[&SimpleReferenceNameChars; ]+:(\s|$))|__ )" minimal="true" column="0"/>
         <RegExpr attribute="Code" String="^\s*\.\. code-block::" context="CodeBlock" column="0"/>
-        <RegExpr attribute="Directive" context="#stay" String="^\s*\.\. [\w-_\.]+::(\s|$)" minimal="true" column="0"/>
+        <RegExpr attribute="Directive" context="#stay" String="^\s*\.\. [\w\-_\.]+::(\s|$)" minimal="true" column="0"/>
         <RegExpr attribute="Code" String="::$" context="CodeBlock" />
         <RegExpr attribute="SubstitutionDefinition" context="#stay" String="^\s*\.\. \|[&SimpleReferenceNameChars; ]+\|\s+[&SimpleReferenceNameChars;]+::\s" minimal="true" column="0"/>
         <RegExpr attribute="Field" String=":(?=([^:]*\\:)*[^:]*:(\s|$))" context="Field" firstNonSpace="true"/>
-        <RegExpr attribute="Comment" context="Comment" String="^(\s*)\.\.\s(?![\w-_\.]+::(\s|$))" column="0"/>
+        <RegExpr attribute="Comment" context="Comment" String="^(\s*)\.\.\s(?![\w\-_\.]+::(\s|$))" column="0"/>
       </context>
 
       <context name="InlineMarkup" attribute="Normal" lineEndContext="#stay">
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@
         <RegExpr attribute="FootnoteReference" context="#stay" String="&inlinestart;\[[&SimpleReferenceNameChars;]+\]_&inlineend;" minimal="true"/>
         <RegExpr attribute="HyperlinkReference" context="#stay" String="&inlinestart;`[^\s].*`_&inlineend;" minimal="true"/>
         <RegExpr attribute="HyperlinkReference" context="#stay" String="&inlinestart;\w+_&inlineend;" minimal="true"/>
-        <RegExpr attribute="InterpretedText" context="TrailingRole" String="&inlinestart;`[^\s].*`(?=:[\w-_\.\+]+:)" minimal="true"/>
-        <RegExpr attribute="Role" String=":[\w-_\.\+]+:(?=`)" context="Role"/>
+        <RegExpr attribute="InterpretedText" context="TrailingRole" String="&inlinestart;`[^\s].*`(?=:[\w\-_\.\+]+:)" minimal="true"/>
+        <RegExpr attribute="Role" String=":[\w\-_\.\+]+:(?=`)" context="Role"/>
       </context>
 
       <context name="Field" attribute="Field" lineEndContext="#stay">
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
         <DetectChar attribute="InterpretedText" char="`" context="#pop!InterpretedText" />
       </context>
       <context name="TrailingRole" attribute="Role" lineEndContext="#pop">
-        <RegExpr attribute="Role" String=":[\w-_\.\+]+:" context="#pop"/>
+        <RegExpr attribute="Role" String=":[\w\-_\.\+]+:" context="#pop"/>
       </context>
       <context name="Comment" attribute="Comment" lineEndContext="#stay" dynamic="true">
         <RegExpr attribute="Code" String="^%1   " context="#stay" column="0" dynamic="true"/>