Question

I would like to apply a different style to all anchors containing a specific word. Can it be done in pure CSS? It’s ok if it’s CSS3-only.

Answer 1

No. :contains was once proposed but is not in the current Working Draft of CSS3 Selectors.

You would need some JavaScript, for example:

Array.from(document.links).forEach(link => {
  if (/\bSpecificWord\b/i.test(link.innerHTML)) {
    link.style.color = 'red';
  }
});

<a href="#">SpecificWord</a>
<a href="#">OtherWords</a>