PHP - String Word Search

functions.php

/** 
 * string_contains_word
 * 
 * PHP independant way to see if one string contains a specific word
 * 
 * @since 7.4
 * @access public
 * @static
 * @author Kevin Pirnie <[email protected]>
 * @package Kevin's Spam Cop
 * 
 * @param string $_string The string to search
 * @param string $_word The string we're searching for
 * 
 * @return string Returns a string containing the users referer
 * 
*/
public static function string_contains_word( string $_string, string $_word ) : bool {

	// let's see if we have str_contains available to us
	if( function_exists( 'str_contains' ) ) {

		// we do, so use it
		return str_contains( $_string, $_word );

	// mmm... nope
	} else {

		// guess we gotta go old school, but we want to match word for word, along with non-english characters
		return ( preg_match( '/(?<=[\s,.:;"\']|^)' . $_word . '(?=[\s,.:;"\']|$)/', $_string ) );

	}

	// by default
	return false;

}