diff --git a/.changeset/sweet-chicken-suffer.md b/.changeset/sweet-chicken-suffer.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7cbb3004da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/sweet-chicken-suffer.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@remix-run/router": patch
+---
+
+fix: update matchPath to avoid false positives on dash-separated segments (#9300)
diff --git a/packages/react-router-dom/__tests__/nav-link-active-test.tsx b/packages/react-router-dom/__tests__/nav-link-active-test.tsx
index 4cc70728d3..34851b7d9d 100644
--- a/packages/react-router-dom/__tests__/nav-link-active-test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react-router-dom/__tests__/nav-link-active-test.tsx
@@ -218,6 +218,76 @@ describe("NavLink", () => {
 
       expect(anchor.props.className).not.toMatch("active");
     });
+
+    it("does not match when <Link to> path is a subset of the active url", () => {
+      let renderer: TestRenderer.ReactTestRenderer;
+      TestRenderer.act(() => {
+        renderer = TestRenderer.create(
+          <MemoryRouter initialEntries={["/user-preferences"]}>
+            <Routes>
+              <Route
+                path="/"
+                element={
+                  <div>
+                    <NavLink to="user">Go to /user</NavLink>
+                    <NavLink to="user-preferences">
+                      Go to /user-preferences
+                    </NavLink>
+                    <Outlet />
+                  </div>
+                }
+              >
+                <Route index element={<p>Index</p>} />
+                <Route path="user" element={<p>User</p>} />
+                <Route
+                  path="user-preferences"
+                  element={<p>User Preferences</p>}
+                />
+              </Route>
+            </Routes>
+          </MemoryRouter>
+        );
+      });
+
+      let anchors = renderer.root.findAllByType("a");
+
+      expect(anchors.map((a) => a.props.className)).toEqual(["", "active"]);
+    });
+
+    it("does not match when active url is a subset of a <Route path> segment", () => {
+      let renderer: TestRenderer.ReactTestRenderer;
+      TestRenderer.act(() => {
+        renderer = TestRenderer.create(
+          <MemoryRouter initialEntries={["/user"]}>
+            <Routes>
+              <Route
+                path="/"
+                element={
+                  <div>
+                    <NavLink to="user">Go to /user</NavLink>
+                    <NavLink to="user-preferences">
+                      Go to /user-preferences
+                    </NavLink>
+                    <Outlet />
+                  </div>
+                }
+              >
+                <Route index element={<p>Index</p>} />
+                <Route path="user" element={<p>User</p>} />
+                <Route
+                  path="user-preferences"
+                  element={<p>User Preferences</p>}
+                />
+              </Route>
+            </Routes>
+          </MemoryRouter>
+        );
+      });
+
+      let anchors = renderer.root.findAllByType("a");
+
+      expect(anchors.map((a) => a.props.className)).toEqual(["active", ""]);
+    });
   });
 
   describe("when it matches just the beginning but not to the end", () => {
diff --git a/packages/react-router/__tests__/matchPath-test.tsx b/packages/react-router/__tests__/matchPath-test.tsx
index 795e889ce4..e36f73ed8a 100644
--- a/packages/react-router/__tests__/matchPath-test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react-router/__tests__/matchPath-test.tsx
@@ -156,6 +156,10 @@ describe("matchPath", () => {
     it("fails to match a pathname where the segments do not match", () => {
       expect(matchPath({ path: "/users", end: false }, "/")).toBeNull();
       expect(matchPath({ path: "/users", end: false }, "/users2")).toBeNull();
+      expect(matchPath({ path: "/users", end: false }, "/users-2")).toBeNull();
+      expect(matchPath({ path: "/users", end: false }, "/users~2")).toBeNull();
+      expect(matchPath({ path: "/users", end: false }, "/users@2")).toBeNull();
+      expect(matchPath({ path: "/users", end: false }, "/users.2")).toBeNull();
       expect(
         matchPath({ path: "/users/mj", end: false }, "/users/mj2")
       ).toBeNull();
diff --git a/packages/router/utils.ts b/packages/router/utils.ts
index cb3e89b85d..e60d2d901a 100644
--- a/packages/router/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/router/utils.ts
@@ -634,16 +634,20 @@ function compilePath(
       path === "*" || path === "/*"
         ? "(.*)$" // Already matched the initial /, just match the rest
         : "(?:\\/(.+)|\\/*)$"; // Don't include the / in params["*"]
+  } else if (end) {
+    // When matching to the end, ignore trailing slashes
+    regexpSource += "\\/*$";
+  } else if (path !== "" && path !== "/") {
+    // If our path is non-empty and contains anything beyond an initial slash,
+    // then we have _some_ form of path in our regex so we should expect to
+    // match only if we find the end of this path segment.  Look for an optional
+    // non-captured trailing slash (to match a portion of the URL) or the end
+    // of the path (if we've matched to the end).  We used to do this with a
+    // word boundary but that gives false positives on routes like
+    // /user-preferences since `-` counts as a word boundary.
+    regexpSource += "(?:(?=\\/|$))";
   } else {
-    regexpSource += end
-      ? "\\/*$" // When matching to the end, ignore trailing slashes
-      : // Otherwise, match a word boundary or a proceeding /. The word boundary restricts
-        // parent routes to matching only their own words and nothing more, e.g. parent
-        // route "/home" should not match "/home2".
-        // Additionally, allow paths starting with `.`, `-`, `~`, and url-encoded entities,
-        // but do not consume the character in the matched path so they can match against
-        // nested paths.
-        "(?:(?=[@.~-]|%[0-9A-F]{2})|\\b|\\/|$)";
+    // Nothing to match for "" or "/"
   }
 
   let matcher = new RegExp(regexpSource, caseSensitive ? undefined : "i");