diff --git a/src/color.c b/src/color.c
index 1ce89ddc..c41d3d10 100644
--- a/src/color.c
+++ b/src/color.c
@@ -58,7 +58,10 @@ void set_interface_colorpairs(void)
 				interface_color_pair[index] = A_NORMAL;
 			else if (index == GUIDE_STRIPE)
 				interface_color_pair[index] = A_REVERSE;
-			else if (index == PROMPT_BAR)
+			else if (index == HIGHLIGHTED) {
+				init_pair(index + 1, COLOR_BLACK, COLOR_YELLOW);
+				interface_color_pair[index] = COLOR_PAIR(index + 1);
+			} else if (index == PROMPT_BAR)
 				interface_color_pair[index] = interface_color_pair[TITLE_BAR];
 			else if (index == ERROR_MESSAGE) {
 				init_pair(index + 1, COLOR_WHITE, COLOR_RED);
diff --git a/src/definitions.h b/src/definitions.h
index f4d7774b..7345620a 100644
--- a/src/definitions.h
+++ b/src/definitions.h
@@ -282,6 +282,7 @@ enum {
 	GUIDE_STRIPE,
 	SCROLL_BAR,
 	SELECTED_TEXT,
+	HIGHLIGHTED,
 	PROMPT_BAR,
 	STATUS_BAR,
 	ERROR_MESSAGE,
diff --git a/src/nano.c b/src/nano.c
index 26be9dc9..114d29d0 100644
--- a/src/nano.c
+++ b/src/nano.c
@@ -2325,6 +2325,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		interface_color_pair[GUIDE_STRIPE] = A_REVERSE;
 		interface_color_pair[SCROLL_BAR] = A_NORMAL;
 		interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT] = hilite_attribute;
+		interface_color_pair[HIGHLIGHTED] = hilite_attribute;
 		interface_color_pair[PROMPT_BAR] = hilite_attribute;
 		interface_color_pair[STATUS_BAR] = hilite_attribute;
 		interface_color_pair[ERROR_MESSAGE] = hilite_attribute;
diff --git a/src/rcfile.c b/src/rcfile.c
index 00af5462..08fd9072 100644
--- a/src/rcfile.c
+++ b/src/rcfile.c
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ static const rcoption rcopts[] = {
 	{"stripecolor", 0},
 	{"scrollercolor", 0},
 	{"selectedcolor", 0},
+	{"highlightcolor", 0},
 	{"promptcolor", 0},
 	{"statuscolor", 0},
 	{"errorcolor", 0},
@@ -1557,6 +1558,8 @@ void parse_rcfile(FILE *rcstream, bool just_syntax, bool intros_only)
 			color_combo[SCROLL_BAR] = parse_interface_color(argument);
 		else if (strcmp(option, "selectedcolor") == 0)
 			color_combo[SELECTED_TEXT] = parse_interface_color(argument);
+		else if (strcmp(option, "highlightcolor") == 0)
+			color_combo[HIGHLIGHTED] = parse_interface_color(argument);
 		else if (strcmp(option, "promptcolor") == 0)
 			color_combo[PROMPT_BAR] = parse_interface_color(argument);
 		else if (strcmp(option, "statuscolor") == 0)
diff --git a/src/winio.c b/src/winio.c
index df0d1336..5af964ac 100644
--- a/src/winio.c
+++ b/src/winio.c
@@ -3504,11 +3504,11 @@ void spotlight(size_t from_col, size_t to_col)
 		word = display_string(openfile->current->data, from_col,
 								to_col - from_col, FALSE, overshoots);
 
-	wattron(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
+	wattron(edit, interface_color_pair[HIGHLIGHTED]);
 	waddnstr(edit, word, actual_x(word, to_col));
 	if (overshoots)
 		mvwaddch(edit, openfile->current_y, COLS - 1 - thebar, '>');
-	wattroff(edit, interface_color_pair[SELECTED_TEXT]);
+	wattroff(edit, interface_color_pair[HIGHLIGHTED]);
 
 	free(word);
 }
diff --git a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
index b4864580..c161c9b1 100644
--- a/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/nanorc.nanorc
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ color brightred ".*"
 
 # Keywords
 color brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*(set|unset)[[:space:]]+(afterends|allow_insecure_backup|atblanks|autoindent|backup|boldtext|bookstyle|breaklonglines|casesensitive|constantshow|cutfromcursor|emptyline|historylog|indicator|jumpyscrolling|linenumbers|locking|magic|minibar|mouse|multibuffer|noconvert|nohelp|nonewlines|positionlog|preserve|quickblank|rawsequences|rebinddelete|regexp|saveonexit|showcursor|smarthome|softwrap|stateflags|suspendable|tabstospaces|trimblanks|unix|wordbounds|zap)\>"
-color yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((error|function|key|number|prompt|scroller|selected|status|stripe|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bold,)?(italic,)?(bright|light)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal|pink|purple|mauve|lagoon|mint|lime|peach|orange|latte)?(,(light)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal|pink|purple|mauve|lagoon|mint|lime|peach|orange|latte))?\>"
-color brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(backupdir|brackets|errorcolor|functioncolor|keycolor|matchbrackets|numbercolor|operatingdir|promptcolor|punct|quotestr|scrollercolor|selectedcolor|speller|statuscolor|stripecolor|titlecolor|whitespace|wordchars)[[:space:]]+"
+color yellow "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+((error|function|highlight|key|number|prompt|scroller|selected|status|stripe|title)color)[[:space:]]+(bold,)?(italic,)?(bright|light)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal|pink|purple|mauve|lagoon|mint|lime|peach|orange|latte)?(,(light)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan|normal|pink|purple|mauve|lagoon|mint|lime|peach|orange|latte))?\>"
+color brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(backupdir|brackets|errorcolor|functioncolor|highlightcolor|keycolor|matchbrackets|numbercolor|operatingdir|promptcolor|punct|quotestr|scrollercolor|selectedcolor|speller|statuscolor|stripecolor|titlecolor|whitespace|wordchars)[[:space:]]+"
 color brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*set[[:space:]]+(fill[[:space:]]+-?[[:digit:]]+|(guidestripe|tabsize)[[:space:]]+[1-9][0-9]*)\>"
 color brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*bind[[:space:]]+((\^([A-Za-z]|[]/@\^_`]|Space)|([Ss][Hh]-)?[Mm]-[A-Za-z]|[Mm]-([][!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-4])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+([a-z]+|".*")[[:space:]]+(main|help|search|replace(with)?|yesno|gotoline|writeout|insert|browser|whereisfile|gotodir|execute|spell|linter|all)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"
 color brightgreen "^[[:space:]]*unbind[[:space:]]+((\^([A-Za-z]|[]/@\^_`]|Space)|([Ss][Hh]-)?[Mm]-[A-Za-z]|[Mm]-([][!"#$%&'()*+,./0-9:;<=>?@\^_`{|}~-]|Space))|F([1-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-4])|Ins|Del)[[:space:]]+(all|main|search|replace(with)?|yesno|gotoline|writeout|insert|ext(ernal)?cmd|help|spell|linter|browser|whereisfile|gotodir)([[:space:]]+#|[[:space:]]*$)"