There's a native way to avoid that recursion. var snap = document.evaluate('//text()', document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null ); for

There's a native way to avoid that recursion. var snap = document.evaluate('//text()', document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null ); for (var i=0;i<snap.snapshotLength;i++){t=snap.snapshotItem(i);t.textContent = replace(t.textContent);} Also, the regexps would probably be better like /\belection\b/gi, to avoid eg reelection->reeating contest.