Test if a string contains a word in PHP?

Use strpos. If the string is not found it returns false, otherwise something that is not false. Be sure to use a type-safe comparison (===) as 0 may be returned and it is a falsy value:

if (strpos($string, $substring) === false) {
    // substring is not found in string
}

if (strpos($string, $substring2) !== false) {
    // substring2 is found in string
}

if (strpos($string, $word) === FALSE) {
   ... not found ...
}

Note that strpos() is case sensitive, if you want a case-insensitive search, use stripos() instead.

Also note the ===, forcing a strict equality test. strpos CAN return a valid 0 if the 'needle' string is at the start of the 'haystack'. By forcing a check for an actual boolean false (aka 0), you eliminate that false positive.