I am trying to check whether the string starts and ends with the same word. egearth.

s=raw_input();
m=re.search(r"^(earth).*(earth)$",s)
if m is not None:
    print "found"

my problem is when the string consists only of one word eg: earth

At present I have hard coded this case by

if m is not None or s=='earth':
    print "found"

Is there any other way to do this?

EDIT:

words in a string are separated by spaces. looking for a regex solution

some examples:

"earth is earth" ,"earth", --> valid

"earthearth", "eartheeearth", "earth earth mars" --> invalid