diff --git a/man3/regex.3 b/man3/regex.3
index bd0026611..8da0ead59 100644
--- a/man3/regex.3
+++ b/man3/regex.3
@@ -160,12 +160,19 @@ above).
 .SS BSD regex matching
 .TP
 .B REG_STARTEND
-Use pmatch[0] on the input string, starting at byte pmatch[0].rm_so and ending
-before byte pmatch[0].rm_eo.
+Use
+.I pmatch[0]
+on the input string, starting at byte
+.I pmatch[0].rm_so
+and ending before byte
+.IR pmatch[0].rm_eo .
 This allows matching embedded NUL bytes
-and avoids a strlen() on large strings.
-It does not use nmatch on input,
-and does not change
+and avoids a
+.BR strlen (3)
+on large strings.
+It does not use
+.I nmatch
+on input, and does not change
 .B REG_NOTBOL
 or
 .B REG_NEWLINE