diff --git a/rc/core/c-family.kak b/rc/core/c-family.kak
index d1bf9ebad..1ab0fcc9f 100644
--- a/rc/core/c-family.kak
+++ b/rc/core/c-family.kak
@@ -178,7 +178,23 @@ add-highlighter shared/c/code regex %{\b-?(0x[0-9a-fA-F]+|\d+)[fdiu]?|'((\\.)?|[
 }
 
 # c++ specific
-add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{\b-?(0x[0-9a-fA-F]+|\d+)[fdiu]?|'((\\.)?|[^'\\])'} 0:value
+
+# character literals (no multi-character literals)
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(\b(u8|u|U|L)|\B)'((\\.)|[^'\\])'\B} 0:value
+
+# integer literals
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b[1-9]('?\d+)*(ul?l?|ll?u?)?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b0b[01]('?[01]+)*(ul?l?|ll?u?)?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b0('?[0-7]+)*(ul?l?|ll?u?)?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b0x[\da-f]('?[\da-f]+)*(ul?l?|ll?u?)?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+
+# floating point literals
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b\d('?\d+)*\.([fl]\b|\B)(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b\d('?\d+)*\.?e[+-]?\d('?\d+)*[fl]?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)(\b(\d('?\d+)*)|\B)\.\d('?[\d]+)*(e[+-]?\d('?\d+)*)?[fl]?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b0x[\da-f]('?[\da-f]+)*\.([fl]\b|\B)(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b0x[\da-f]('?[\da-f]+)*\.?p[+-]?\d('?\d+)*)?[fl]?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
+add-highlighter shared/cpp/code regex %{(?i)(?<!\.)\b0x([\da-f]('?[\da-f]+)*)?\.\d('?[\d]+)*(p[+-]?\d('?\d+)*)?[fl]?\b(?!\.)} 0:value
 
 %sh{
     # Grammar