# Feature or enhancement ### Proposal: In https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/86519 (PR https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/31137), we added new `re.prefixmatch` and `re.Pattern.prefixmatch` as explicit names for `re.match` and `re.Pattern.match`, because it's really not obvious the shorter old names include a prefix anchor; you probably meant to use `search` (no anchors) or `fullmatch` (prefix and suffix anchors). This is essentially a [soft deprecation](https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-soft-deprecated) of the `match` names: * It's okay to use the old name in old code, but prefer the new name in new code. * We don't plan on removing the old name or emitting deprecation warnings. Let's make this explicit. ### Has this already been discussed elsewhere? No response given ### Links to previous discussion of this feature: _No response_ <!-- gh-linked-prs --> ### Linked PRs * gh-148101 <!-- /gh-linked-prs -->