diff --git a/frontend/src/ts/test/test-ui.ts b/frontend/src/ts/test/test-ui.ts
index 86dba54a5..de22c1ea1 100644
--- a/frontend/src/ts/test/test-ui.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/ts/test/test-ui.ts
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ async function joinOverlappingHints(
   activeWordLetters: NodeListOf<Element>,
   hintElements: HTMLCollection,
 ): Promise<void> {
-  const isWordRightToLeft = Strings.isWordRightToLeft(
+  const [isWordRightToLeft, _isFullMatch] = Strings.isWordRightToLeft(
     TestWords.words.getCurrent(),
     TestState.isLanguageRightToLeft,
     TestState.isDirectionReversed,
diff --git a/frontend/src/ts/utils/caret.ts b/frontend/src/ts/utils/caret.ts
index 60629c6bd..11935474a 100644
--- a/frontend/src/ts/utils/caret.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/ts/utils/caret.ts
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ export class Caret {
     isLanguageRightToLeft: boolean;
     isDirectionReversed: boolean;
   }): { left: number; top: number; width: number } {
-    const isWordRTL = isWordRightToLeft(
+    const [isWordRTL, isFullMatch] = isWordRightToLeft(
       options.wordText,
       options.isLanguageRightToLeft,
       options.isDirectionReversed,
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ export class Caret {
 
     // yes, this is all super verbose, but its easier to maintain and understand
     if (isWordRTL) {
-      if (options.wordText) options.word.addClass("wordRtl");
+      if (isFullMatch) options.word.addClass("wordRtl");
       let afterLetterCorrection = 0;
       if (options.side === "afterLetter") {
         if (this.isFullWidth()) {
diff --git a/frontend/src/ts/utils/strings.ts b/frontend/src/ts/utils/strings.ts
index 993f49682..bf9e79f3f 100644
--- a/frontend/src/ts/utils/strings.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/ts/utils/strings.ts
@@ -214,23 +214,24 @@ export function replaceControlCharacters(textToClear: string): string {
  * @param word the word to check for RTL characters
  * @returns true if the word contains RTL characters, false otherwise
  */
-function hasRTLCharacters(word: string): boolean {
+function hasRTLCharacters(word: string): [boolean, number] {
   if (!word || word.length === 0) {
-    return false;
+    return [false, 0];
   }
 
   // This covers Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and other RTL scripts
   const rtlPattern =
-    /[\u0590-\u05FF\u0600-\u06FF\u0750-\u077F\u08A0-\u08FF\uFB50-\uFDFF\uFE70-\uFEFF]/;
+    /[\u0590-\u05FF\u0600-\u06FF\u0750-\u077F\u08A0-\u08FF\uFB50-\uFDFF\uFE70-\uFEFF]+/;
 
-  return rtlPattern.test(word);
+  const result = rtlPattern.exec(word);
+  return [result !== null, result?.[0].length ?? 0];
 }
 
 /**
  * Cache for word direction to avoid repeated calculations per word
  * Keyed by the stripped core of the word; can be manually cleared when needed
  */
-let wordDirectionCache: Map<string, boolean> = new Map();
+let wordDirectionCache: Map<string, [boolean, number]> = new Map();
 
 export function clearWordDirectionCache(): void {
   wordDirectionCache.clear();
@@ -240,25 +241,31 @@ export function isWordRightToLeft(
   word: string | undefined,
   languageRTL: boolean,
   reverseDirection?: boolean,
-): boolean {
+): [boolean, boolean] {
   if (word === undefined || word.length === 0) {
-    return reverseDirection ? !languageRTL : languageRTL;
+    return reverseDirection ? [!languageRTL, false] : [languageRTL, false];
   }
 
   // Strip leading/trailing punctuation and whitespace so attached opposite-direction
   // punctuation like "word؟" or "،word" doesn't flip the direction detection
   // and if only punctuation/symbols/whitespace, use main language direction
   const core = word.replace(/^[\p{P}\p{S}\s]+|[\p{P}\p{S}\s]+$/gu, "");
-  if (core.length === 0) return reverseDirection ? !languageRTL : languageRTL;
+  if (core.length === 0)
+    return reverseDirection ? [!languageRTL, false] : [languageRTL, false];
 
   // cache by core to handle variants like "word" vs "word؟"
   const cached = wordDirectionCache.get(core);
-  if (cached !== undefined) return reverseDirection ? !cached : cached;
+  if (cached !== undefined)
+    return reverseDirection
+      ? [!cached[0], false]
+      : [cached[0], cached[1] === word.length];
 
   const result = hasRTLCharacters(core);
   wordDirectionCache.set(core, result);
 
-  return reverseDirection ? !result : result;
+  return reverseDirection
+    ? [!result[0], false]
+    : [result[0], result[1] === word.length];
 }
 
 export const CHAR_EQUIVALENCE_SETS = [