diff --git a/client/coral-admin/src/components/CommentBodyHighlighter.js b/client/coral-admin/src/components/CommentBodyHighlighter.js
index 3b3ee3318..39be90d81 100644
--- a/client/coral-admin/src/components/CommentBodyHighlighter.js
+++ b/client/coral-admin/src/components/CommentBodyHighlighter.js
@@ -8,14 +8,11 @@ export default ({suspectWords, bannedWords, body, ...rest}) => {
   const links = linkify.getMatches(body);
   const linkText = links ? links.map((link) => link.raw) : [];
 
-  // since words are checked against word boundaries on the backend,
-  // should be the behavior on the front end as well.
-  // currently the highlighter plugin does not support out of the box.
-  const searchWords = [...suspectWords, ...bannedWords]
-    .filter((w) => {
-      return new RegExp(`(^|\\s)${w}(\\s|$)`, 'i').test(body);
-    })
-    .concat(linkText);
+  const searchWords = [
+    ...suspectWords,
+    ...bannedWords,
+    ...linkText
+  ];
 
   return (
     <Highlighter