diff --git a/doc/nano.texi b/doc/nano.texi
index cd27a463..dbded437 100644
--- a/doc/nano.texi
+++ b/doc/nano.texi
@@ -707,9 +707,9 @@ Do backwards searches by default.
 
 @item set boldtext
 Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key combos,
-function tags, line numbers, and selected text.  This can be overridden for
-the first five by setting the options @code{titlecolor}, @code{statuscolor},
-@code{keycolor}, @code{functioncolor}, and @code{numbercolor}.
+function tags, line numbers, and selected text.  This can be overridden by
+setting the options @code{titlecolor}, @code{statuscolor}, @code{keycolor},
+@code{functioncolor}, @code{numbercolor}, and @code{selectedcolor}.
 
 @item set brackets "@var{string}"
 Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying
@@ -852,6 +852,10 @@ won't work properly with this option enabled.
 @item set regexp
 Do extended regular expression searches by default.
 
+@item set selectedcolor @var{fgcolor},@var{bgcolor}
+Use this color combination for selected text.
+@xref{@code{set functioncolor}} for valid color names.
+
 @item set showcursor
 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, to aid
 braille users.
diff --git a/doc/nanorc.5 b/doc/nanorc.5
index 3d715cfa..629312e9 100644
--- a/doc/nanorc.5
+++ b/doc/nanorc.5
@@ -79,9 +79,9 @@ Do backwards searches by default.
 .TP
 .B set boldtext
 Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key combos,
-function tags, line numbers, and selected text.  This can be overridden for
-the first five by setting the options \fBtitlecolor\fP, \fBstatuscolor\fP,
-\fBkeycolor\fP, \fBfunctioncolor\fP, and \fBnumbercolor\fP.
+function tags, line numbers, and selected text.  This can be overridden by
+setting the options \fBtitlecolor\fP, \fBstatuscolor\fP, \fBkeycolor\fP,
+\fBfunctioncolor\fP, \fBnumbercolor\fP, and \fBselectedcolor\fP.
 .TP
 .B set brackets "\fIstring\fP"
 Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying
@@ -220,6 +220,10 @@ won't work properly with this option enabled.
 .B set regexp
 Do extended regular expression searches by default.
 .TP
+.B set selectedcolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
+Specify the color combination to use for selected text.
+See \fBset titlecolor\fR for more details.
+.TP
 .B set showcursor
 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, to aid
 braille users.
diff --git a/doc/sample.nanorc.in b/doc/sample.nanorc.in
index 2b39d9ff..b6eebb15 100644
--- a/doc/sample.nanorc.in
+++ b/doc/sample.nanorc.in
@@ -208,12 +208,14 @@
 ## These are examples; by default there are no colors.
 # set titlecolor brightwhite,blue
 # set statuscolor brightwhite,green
+# set selectedcolor brightwhite,magenta
 # set numbercolor cyan
 # set keycolor cyan
 # set functioncolor green
 ## In root's .nanorc you might want to use:
 # set titlecolor brightwhite,red
 # set statuscolor brightwhite,red
+# set selectedcolor brightwhite,cyan
 # set numbercolor magenta
 # set keycolor brightmagenta
 # set functioncolor magenta
diff --git a/src/browser.c b/src/browser.c
index b5cfa80f..51ea37fa 100644
--- a/src/browser.c
+++ b/src/browser.c
@@ -538,7 +538,7 @@ void browser_refresh(void)
 	/* If this is the selected item, start its highlighting, and
 	 * remember its location to be able to place the cursor on it. */
 	if (i == selected) {
-	    wattron(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	    wattron(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 	    the_row = row;
 	    the_column = col;
 	}
@@ -610,7 +610,7 @@ void browser_refresh(void)
 
 	/* If this is the selected item, finish its highlighting. */
 	if (i == selected)
-	    wattroff(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	    wattroff(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 
 	free(info);
 
diff --git a/src/nano.c b/src/nano.c
index 44b83c9d..17da37b1 100644
--- a/src/nano.c
+++ b/src/nano.c
@@ -2492,6 +2492,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 #else
     interface_color_pair[TITLE_BAR] = hilite_attribute;
     interface_color_pair[LINE_NUMBER] = hilite_attribute;
+    interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT] = hilite_attribute;
     interface_color_pair[STATUS_BAR] = hilite_attribute;
     interface_color_pair[KEY_COMBO] = hilite_attribute;
     interface_color_pair[FUNCTION_TAG] = A_NORMAL;
diff --git a/src/nano.h b/src/nano.h
index c6ea016d..7c52da8b 100644
--- a/src/nano.h
+++ b/src/nano.h
@@ -469,6 +469,7 @@ enum
 {
     TITLE_BAR = 0,
     LINE_NUMBER,
+    SELECTED_TEXT,
     STATUS_BAR,
     KEY_COMBO,
     FUNCTION_TAG,
diff --git a/src/rcfile.c b/src/rcfile.c
index beb17420..74348f5b 100644
--- a/src/rcfile.c
+++ b/src/rcfile.c
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ static const rcoption rcopts[] = {
 #ifndef DISABLE_COLOR
     {"titlecolor", 0},
     {"numbercolor", 0},
+    {"selectedcolor", 0},
     {"statuscolor", 0},
     {"keycolor", 0},
     {"functioncolor", 0},
@@ -1113,6 +1114,8 @@ void parse_rcfile(FILE *rcstream, bool syntax_only)
 	    specified_color_combo[TITLE_BAR] = option;
 	else if (strcasecmp(rcopts[i].name, "numbercolor") == 0)
 	    specified_color_combo[LINE_NUMBER] = option;
+	else if (strcasecmp(rcopts[i].name, "selectedcolor") == 0)
+	    specified_color_combo[SELECTED_TEXT] = option;
 	else if (strcasecmp(rcopts[i].name, "statuscolor") == 0)
 	    specified_color_combo[STATUS_BAR] = option;
 	else if (strcasecmp(rcopts[i].name, "keycolor") == 0)
diff --git a/src/winio.c b/src/winio.c
index 46581274..e3aa1221 100644
--- a/src/winio.c
+++ b/src/winio.c
@@ -2650,9 +2650,9 @@ void edit_draw(filestruct *fileptr, const char *converted,
 		paintlen = actual_x(thetext, end_col - start_col);
 	    }
 
-	    wattron(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	    wattron(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 	    mvwaddnstr(edit, row, margin + start_col, thetext, paintlen);
-	    wattroff(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	    wattroff(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 	}
     }
 #endif /* !NANO_TINY */
@@ -3417,7 +3417,7 @@ void spotlight(bool active, size_t from_col, size_t to_col)
 	room--;
 
     if (active)
-	wattron(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	wattron(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 
     waddnstr(edit, word, actual_x(word, room));
 
@@ -3425,7 +3425,7 @@ void spotlight(bool active, size_t from_col, size_t to_col)
 	waddch(edit, '$');
 
     if (active)
-	wattroff(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	wattroff(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 
     free(word);
 
@@ -3464,12 +3464,12 @@ void spotlight_softwrapped(bool active, size_t from_col, size_t to_col)
 					break_col - from_col, FALSE);
 
 	if (active)
-	    wattron(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	    wattron(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 
 	waddnstr(edit, word, actual_x(word, break_col));
 
 	if (active)
-	    wattroff(edit, hilite_attribute);
+	    wattroff(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
 
 	free(word);
 
diff --git a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
index ac1fa4ce..8013a7f4 100644
--- a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ icolor brightred "^[[:space:]]*((un)?(bind|set)|include|syntax|header|magic|comm
 # Keywords
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*(set|unset)[[:space:]]+(allow_insecure_backup|atblanks|autoindent|backup|backwards|boldtext|casesensitive|constantshow|cutfromcursor|fill[[:space:]]+-?[[:digit:]]+|historylog|justifytrim|linenumbers|locking|morespace|mouse|multibuffer|noconvert|nohelp|nopauses|nonewlines|nowrap|positionlog|preserve|quickblank|quiet|rebinddelete|rebindkeypad|regexp|showcursor|smarthome|smooth|softwrap|suspend|tabsize[[:space:]]+[1-9][0-9]*|tabstospaces|tempfile|unix|view|wordbounds)\>"
 icolor yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((function|key|number|status|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan)?(,(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan))?\>"
-icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(backupdir|brackets|functioncolor|keycolor|matchbrackets|numbercolor|operatingdir|punct|quotestr|speller|statuscolor|titlecolor|whitespace|wordchars)[[:space:]]+"
+icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(backupdir|brackets|functioncolor|keycolor|matchbrackets|numbercolor|operatingdir|punct|quotestr|selectedcolor|speller|statuscolor|titlecolor|whitespace|wordchars)[[:space:]]+"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*bind[[:space:]]+((\^([[:alpha:]]|[]0-9\^_]|Space)|M-([[:alpha:]]|[]!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-6])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+[[:alpha:]]+[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*unbind[[:space:]]+((\^([[:alpha:]]|[]0-9\^_]|Space)|M-([[:alpha:]]|[]!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-6])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
 icolor brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*extendsyntax[[:space:]]+[[:alpha:]]+[[:space:]]+(i?color|header|magic|comment|linter|formatter)[[:space:]]+.*$"