diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index 77d797eb0a4..c0e4cfcf5fe 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -8636,7 +8636,7 @@ void Tokenizer::findGarbageCode() const
             syntaxError(tok);
         if (Token::Match(tok, "%assign% typename|class %assign%"))
             syntaxError(tok);
-        if (Token::Match(tok, "%assign% [;)}]") && (!isCPP() || !Token::Match(tok->previous(), "operator %assign% ;")))
+        if (Token::Match(tok, "%assign% [;)}]") && (!isCPP() || !Token::simpleMatch(tok->previous(), "operator")))
             syntaxError(tok);
         if (Token::Match(tok, "%cop%|=|,|[ %or%|%oror%|/|%"))
             syntaxError(tok);