Longest word in a sentence in terms of reduce

longest word

// longest word in sentence, and ignore punctuation.
function longestWord(sen) {
    // would be easier if we had support for unicode character classes, at which point can use \p{P} for punctuation.
    var punctPattern = /[\!\@\#\$\%\^\&\*\(\)\'\|\"/\\\-\+~`?\<\>\}\{]/g;
    return sen.replace(punctPattern, '')
           .split(' ')
           .reduce(function(p, c, i, a) {
                var maxLength = p.max;
                var curLength = c.length;
                if (curLength >= maxLength) {
                    p.max = curLength;
                    p.longestWord = c;
                }
                return p;
            }, { max: 0, longestWord: ""}).longestWord;
}