diff --git a/sphinx/domains/std.py b/sphinx/domains/std.py
index 1cb8bdf85..fc09f4ac0 100644
--- a/sphinx/domains/std.py
+++ b/sphinx/domains/std.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 # RE for option descriptions
 option_desc_re = re.compile(r'((?:/|--|-|\+)?[^\s=]+)(=?\s*.*)')
 # RE for grammar tokens
-token_re = re.compile(r'`((~?\w*:)?\w+)`')
+token_re = re.compile(r'`((~?[\w-]*:)?\w+)`')
 
 samp_role = EmphasizedLiteral()