diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/settings/AbstractScopedSettings.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/settings/AbstractScopedSettings.java
index 05b7d96c8f6db..717f9a258a7e6 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/settings/AbstractScopedSettings.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/settings/AbstractScopedSettings.java
@@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ private static boolean applyDeletes(Set<String> deletes, Settings.Builder builde
             Set<String> keysToRemove = new HashSet<>();
             Set<String> keySet = builder.internalMap().keySet();
             for (String key : keySet) {
-                if (Regex.simpleMatch(entry, key) && canRemove.test(key)) {
+                if ( (Regex.simpleMatch(entry, key) || Regex.simpleMatch(entry + ".*", key)) && canRemove.test(key)) {
                     // we have to re-check with canRemove here since we might have a wildcard expression foo.* that matches
                     // dynamic as well as static settings if that is the case we might remove static settings since we resolve the
                     // wildcards late