diff --git a/spec/text-editor-registry-spec.js b/spec/text-editor-registry-spec.js
index 985f9b0a9..77ce3ad38 100644
--- a/spec/text-editor-registry-spec.js
+++ b/spec/text-editor-registry-spec.js
@@ -394,5 +394,28 @@ describe('TextEditorRegistry', function () {
       atom.config.set('editor.undoGroupingInterval', 300)
       expect(editor.getUndoGroupingInterval()).toBe(300)
     })
+
+    it('sets the non-word characters based on the config', function () {
+      atom.config.set('editor.nonWordCharacters', '(){}')
+      registry.maintainConfig(editor)
+      expect(editor.getNonWordCharacters()).toBe('(){}')
+
+      atom.config.set('editor.nonWordCharacters', '(){}[]')
+      expect(editor.getNonWordCharacters()).toBe('(){}[]')
+    })
+
+    it('gives the editor a scoped-settings delegate based on the config', function () {
+      atom.config.set('editor.nonWordCharacters', '()')
+      atom.config.set('editor.nonWordCharacters', '(){}', {scopeSelector: '.a.b .c.d'})
+      atom.config.set('editor.nonWordCharacters', '(){}[]', {scopeSelector: '.e.f *'})
+
+      registry.maintainConfig(editor)
+
+      let delegate = editor.getScopedSettingsDelegate()
+
+      expect(delegate.getNonWordCharacters(['a.b', 'c.d'])).toBe('(){}')
+      expect(delegate.getNonWordCharacters(['e.f', 'g.h'])).toBe('(){}[]')
+      expect(delegate.getNonWordCharacters(['i.j'])).toBe('()')
+    })
   })
 })
diff --git a/spec/text-editor-spec.coffee b/spec/text-editor-spec.coffee
index 37f5bbe77..26caa6699 100644
--- a/spec/text-editor-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/text-editor-spec.coffee
@@ -1645,28 +1645,29 @@ describe "TextEditor", ->
           editor.selectWordsContainingCursors()
           expect(editor.getSelectedBufferRange()).toEqual [[12, 2], [12, 6]]
 
-      describe 'when editor.nonWordCharacters is set scoped to a grammar', ->
-        coffeeEditor = null
-        beforeEach ->
-          waitsForPromise ->
-            atom.packages.activatePackage('language-coffee-script')
-          waitsForPromise ->
-            atom.workspace.open('coffee.coffee', autoIndent: false).then (o) -> coffeeEditor = o
+      it "selects words based on the non-word characters configured at the cursor's current scope", ->
+        editor.setText("one-one; 'two-two'; three-three");
 
-        it 'selects the correct surrounding word for the given scoped setting', ->
-          coffeeEditor.setCursorBufferPosition [0, 9] # in the middle of quicksort
-          coffeeEditor.selectWordsContainingCursors()
-          expect(coffeeEditor.getSelectedBufferRange()).toEqual [[0, 6], [0, 15]]
+        editor.setCursorBufferPosition([0, 1])
+        editor.addCursorAtBufferPosition([0, 12])
 
-          atom.config.set 'editor.nonWordCharacters', 'qusort', scopeSelector: '.source.coffee'
+        scopeDescriptors = editor.getCursors().map (c) -> c.getScopeDescriptor()
+        expect(scopeDescriptors[0].getScopesArray()).toEqual(['source.js'])
+        expect(scopeDescriptors[1].getScopesArray()).toEqual(['source.js', 'string.quoted.single.js'])
 
-          coffeeEditor.setCursorBufferPosition [0, 9]
-          coffeeEditor.selectWordsContainingCursors()
-          expect(coffeeEditor.getSelectedBufferRange()).toEqual [[0, 8], [0, 11]]
+        editor.setScopedSettingsDelegate({
+          getNonWordCharacters: (scopes) ->
+            result = '/\()"\':,.;<>~!@#$%^&*|+=[]{}`?'
+            if (scopes.some (scope) -> scope.startsWith('string'))
+              result
+            else
+              result + '-'
+        })
 
-          editor.setCursorBufferPosition [0, 7]
-          editor.selectWordsContainingCursors()
-          expect(editor.getSelectedBufferRange()).toEqual [[0, 4], [0, 13]]
+        editor.selectWordsContainingCursors()
+
+        expect(editor.getSelections()[0].getText()).toBe('one')
+        expect(editor.getSelections()[1].getText()).toBe('two-two')
 
     describe ".selectToFirstCharacterOfLine()", ->
       it "moves to the first character of the current line or the beginning of the line if it's already on the first character", ->
diff --git a/src/cursor.coffee b/src/cursor.coffee
index e2eaa8c05..006801cf8 100644
--- a/src/cursor.coffee
+++ b/src/cursor.coffee
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ class Cursor extends Model
   visible: true
 
   # Instantiated by a {TextEditor}
-  constructor: ({@editor, @marker, @config, id}) ->
+  constructor: ({@editor, @marker, id}) ->
     @emitter = new Emitter
 
     @assignId(id)
@@ -160,8 +160,8 @@ class Cursor extends Model
     [before, after] = @editor.getTextInBufferRange(range)
     return false if /\s/.test(before) or /\s/.test(after)
 
-    nonWordCharacters = @config.get('editor.nonWordCharacters', scope: @getScopeDescriptor()).split('')
-    _.contains(nonWordCharacters, before) isnt _.contains(nonWordCharacters, after)
+    nonWordCharacters = @getNonWordCharacters()
+    nonWordCharacters.includes(before) isnt nonWordCharacters.includes(after)
 
   # Public: Returns whether this cursor is between a word's start and end.
   #
@@ -608,9 +608,7 @@ class Cursor extends Model
   #
   # Returns a {RegExp}.
   wordRegExp: (options) ->
-    scope = @getScopeDescriptor()
-    nonWordCharacters = _.escapeRegExp(@config.get('editor.nonWordCharacters', {scope}))
-
+    nonWordCharacters = _.escapeRegExp(@getNonWordCharacters())
     source = "^[\t ]*$|[^\\s#{nonWordCharacters}]+"
     if options?.includeNonWordCharacters ? true
       source += "|" + "[#{nonWordCharacters}]+"
@@ -624,7 +622,7 @@ class Cursor extends Model
   #
   # Returns a {RegExp}.
   subwordRegExp: (options={}) ->
-    nonWordCharacters = @config.get('editor.nonWordCharacters', scope: @getScopeDescriptor())
+    nonWordCharacters = @getNonWordCharacters()
     lowercaseLetters = 'a-z\\u00DF-\\u00F6\\u00F8-\\u00FF'
     uppercaseLetters = 'A-Z\\u00C0-\\u00D6\\u00D8-\\u00DE'
     snakeCamelSegment = "[#{uppercaseLetters}]?[#{lowercaseLetters}]+"
@@ -647,6 +645,14 @@ class Cursor extends Model
   Section: Private
   ###
 
+  getNonWordCharacters: ->
+    (
+      @editor
+        .scopedSettingsDelegate
+        ?.getNonWordCharacters?(@getScopeDescriptor().getScopesArray()) ?
+      @editor.getNonWordCharacters()
+    )
+
   changePosition: (options, fn) ->
     @clearSelection(autoscroll: false)
     fn()
diff --git a/src/text-editor-registry.js b/src/text-editor-registry.js
index 082aa5f28..af0d2059a 100644
--- a/src/text-editor-registry.js
+++ b/src/text-editor-registry.js
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ const EDITOR_SETTER_NAMES_BY_SETTING_KEY = [
   ['editor.autoIndentOnPaste', 'setAutoIndentOnPaste'],
   ['editor.scrollPastEnd', 'setScrollPastEnd'],
   ['editor.undoGroupingInterval', 'setUndoGroupingInterval'],
+  ['editor.nonWordCharacters', 'setNonWordCharacters'],
 ]
 
 // Experimental: This global registry tracks registered `TextEditors`.
@@ -39,6 +40,7 @@ export default class TextEditorRegistry {
     this.emitter = new Emitter()
     this.scopesWithConfigSubscriptions = new Set()
     this.editorsWithMaintainedConfig = new Set()
+    this.scopedSettingsDelegate = new ScopedSettingsDelegate(config)
   }
 
   destroy () {
@@ -90,6 +92,7 @@ export default class TextEditorRegistry {
   maintainConfig (editor) {
     this.editorsWithMaintainedConfig.add(editor)
     this.subscribeToSettingsForEditorScope(editor)
+    editor.setScopedSettingsDelegate(this.scopedSettingsDelegate)
 
     const configOptions = {scope: editor.getRootScopeDescriptor()}
     for (const [settingKey, setterName] of EDITOR_SETTER_NAMES_BY_SETTING_KEY) {
@@ -165,3 +168,13 @@ function shouldEditorUseSoftTabs (editor, tabType, softTabs) {
       }
   }
 }
+
+class ScopedSettingsDelegate {
+  constructor (config) {
+    this.config = config
+  }
+
+  getNonWordCharacters(scope) {
+    return this.config.get('editor.nonWordCharacters', {scope: scope})
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/text-editor.coffee b/src/text-editor.coffee
index 71631bffc..c9b2e19cf 100644
--- a/src/text-editor.coffee
+++ b/src/text-editor.coffee
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ class TextEditor extends Model
     @autoIndent ?= true
     @autoIndentOnPaste ?= true
     @undoGroupingInterval ?= 300
+    @nonWordCharacters ?= "/\\()\"':,.;<>~!@#$%^&*|+=[]{}`?-…"
 
     @buffer ?= new TextBuffer
     @tokenizedBuffer ?= new TokenizedBuffer({
@@ -2094,7 +2095,7 @@ class TextEditor extends Model
 
   # Add a cursor based on the given {DisplayMarker}.
   addCursor: (marker) ->
-    cursor = new Cursor(editor: this, marker: marker, config: @config)
+    cursor = new Cursor(editor: this, marker: marker)
     @cursors.push(cursor)
     @cursorsByMarkerId.set(marker.id, cursor)
     @decorateMarker(marker, type: 'line-number', class: 'cursor-line')
@@ -3328,6 +3329,10 @@ class TextEditor extends Model
   Section: Config
   ###
 
+  setScopedSettingsDelegate: (@scopedSettingsDelegate) ->
+
+  getScopedSettingsDelegate: -> @scopedSettingsDelegate
+
   setAutoIndent: (@autoIndent) ->
 
   setAutoIndentOnPaste: (@autoIndentOnPaste) ->
@@ -3344,6 +3349,10 @@ class TextEditor extends Model
 
   getUndoGroupingInterval: -> @undoGroupingInterval
 
+  setNonWordCharacters: (@nonWordCharacters) ->
+
+  getNonWordCharacters: -> @nonWordCharacters
+
   ###
   Section: Event Handlers
   ###