diff --git a/spec/app/edit-session-spec.coffee b/spec/app/edit-session-spec.coffee
index 6f72cd8bc..a16554f84 100644
--- a/spec/app/edit-session-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/app/edit-session-spec.coffee
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ describe "EditSession", ->
   afterEach ->
     fixturesProject.destroy()
 
-  describe "cursor", ->
+  fdescribe "cursor", ->
     describe ".getCursor()", ->
       it "returns the most recently created cursor", ->
         editSession.addCursorAtScreenPosition([1, 0])
@@ -276,17 +276,17 @@ describe "EditSession", ->
         editSession.moveCursorToBeginningOfWord()
 
         expect(cursor1.getBufferPosition()).toEqual [0, 4]
-        expect(cursor2.getBufferPosition()).toEqual [1, 10]
+        expect(cursor2.getBufferPosition()).toEqual [1, 11]
         expect(cursor3.getBufferPosition()).toEqual [2, 39]
 
       it "does not fail at position [0, 0]", ->
         editSession.setCursorBufferPosition([0, 0])
         editSession.moveCursorToBeginningOfWord()
 
-      it "works when the preceding line is blank", ->
-        editSession.setCursorBufferPosition([10, 0])
+      it "works when the previous line is blank", ->
+        editSession.setCursorBufferPosition([11, 0])
         editSession.moveCursorToBeginningOfWord()
-        expect(editSession.getCursorBufferPosition()).toEqual [9, 0]
+        expect(editSession.getCursorBufferPosition()).toEqual [10, 0]
 
     describe ".moveCursorToEndOfWord()", ->
       it "moves the cursor to the end of the word", ->
diff --git a/src/app/cursor.coffee b/src/app/cursor.coffee
index efc80fbf4..cc4c13c30 100644
--- a/src/app/cursor.coffee
+++ b/src/app/cursor.coffee
@@ -149,10 +149,14 @@ class Cursor
     previousLinesRange = [[previousNonBlankRow, 0], currentBufferPosition]
 
     beginningOfWordPosition = currentBufferPosition
-    @editSession.backwardsScanInRange (options.wordRegex ? config.get("editor.wordRegex")), previousLinesRange, (match, matchRange, { stop }) =>
+
+    wordSeparators = config.get("editor.wordSeparators")
+    wordSeparatorsRegex = new RegExp("^[\t ]*\n|[^\\s#{_.escapeRegExp(wordSeparators)}]+|[#{_.escapeRegExp(wordSeparators)}]+", "m")
+    @editSession.backwardsScanInRange (options.wordRegex ? wordSeparatorsRegex), previousLinesRange, (match, matchRange, { stop }) =>
       if matchRange.end.isGreaterThanOrEqual(currentBufferPosition) or allowPrevious
         beginningOfWordPosition = matchRange.start
       stop()
+
     beginningOfWordPosition
 
   getEndOfCurrentWordBufferPosition: (options = {}) ->
diff --git a/src/app/editor.coffee b/src/app/editor.coffee
index 55600c0fa..affeefc68 100644
--- a/src/app/editor.coffee
+++ b/src/app/editor.coffee
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ class Editor extends View
     autoIndent: true
     autoIndentOnPaste: false
     wordRegex: /(\w+)|([^\w\n]+)/g
+    wordSeparators: "./\()\"’-:,.;<>~!@#$%^&*|+=[]{}`~?"
 
   @content: (params) ->
     @div class: @classes(params), tabindex: -1, =>