diff --git a/lib/repl.js b/lib/repl.js
index 1291ad2d072f97..e11d91d8c16fbc 100644
--- a/lib/repl.js
+++ b/lib/repl.js
@@ -627,7 +627,7 @@ ArrayStream.prototype.write = function() {};
 
 const requireRE = /\brequire\s*\(['"](([\w\.\/-]+\/)?([\w\.\/-]*))/;
 const simpleExpressionRE =
-    /(([a-zA-Z_$](?:\w|\$)*)\.)*([a-zA-Z_$](?:\w|\$)*)\.?$/;
+    /^\s*(([a-zA-Z_$](?:\w|\$)*)\.)*([a-zA-Z_$](?:\w|\$)*)\.?$/;
 
 function intFilter(item) {
   // filters out anything not starting with A-Z, a-z, $ or _
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-repl-tab-complete.js b/test/parallel/test-repl-tab-complete.js
index b1aa6d61f4f462..27179472d00d00 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-repl-tab-complete.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-repl-tab-complete.js
@@ -251,3 +251,11 @@ testMe.complete('obj.', common.mustCall(function(error, data) {
   assert.strictEqual(data[0].indexOf('obj.1a'), -1);
   assert.notStrictEqual(data[0].indexOf('obj.a'), -1);
 }));
+
+// Don't try to complete results of non-simple expressions
+putIn.run(['.clear']);
+putIn.run(['function a() {}']);
+
+testMe.complete('a().b.', common.mustCall((error, data) => {
+  assert.deepEqual(data, [[], undefined]);
+}));