diff --git a/.rspec b/.rspec
index 616c4338..b8878d1f 100644
--- a/.rspec
+++ b/.rspec
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
---colour
 --backtrace
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_taggable_on_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_taggable_on_spec.rb
index 37a4d031..4c0875a4 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_taggable_on_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_taggable_on_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Acts As Taggable On' do
+RSpec.describe 'Acts As Taggable On' do
 
   it "should provide a class method 'taggable?' that is false for untaggable models" do
     expect(UntaggableModel).to_not be_taggable
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_tagger_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_tagger_spec.rb
index 69c5965f..5bf6cfba 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_tagger_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/acts_as_tagger_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'acts_as_tagger' do
+RSpec.describe 'acts_as_tagger' do
 
   describe 'Tagger Method Generation' do
     before(:each) do
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/caching_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/caching_spec.rb
index f054092a..47f24e04 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/caching_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/caching_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Acts As Taggable On' do
+RSpec.describe 'Acts As Taggable On' do
 
   describe 'Caching' do
     before(:each) do
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/default_parser_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/default_parser_spec.rb
index b162d025..332d44be 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/default_parser_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/default_parser_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::DefaultParser do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::DefaultParser do
   it '#parse should return empty array if empty array is passed' do
     parser = ActsAsTaggableOn::DefaultParser.new([])
     expect(parser.parse).to be_empty
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/dirty_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/dirty_spec.rb
index c447bfdc..b19eafaa 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/dirty_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/dirty_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Dirty behavior of taggable objects' do
+RSpec.describe 'Dirty behavior of taggable objects' do
   context 'with un-contexted tags' do
     before(:each) do
       @taggable = TaggableModel.create(tag_list: 'awesome, epic')
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/generic_parser_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/generic_parser_spec.rb
index 173f6ba4..d5407863 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/generic_parser_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/generic_parser_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::GenericParser do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::GenericParser do
   it '#parse should return empty array if empty tag string is passed' do
     tag_list = ActsAsTaggableOn::GenericParser.new('')
     expect(tag_list.parse).to be_empty
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/related_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/related_spec.rb
index 58fd5b04..bbbc9aec 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/related_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/related_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Acts As Taggable On' do
+RSpec.describe 'Acts As Taggable On' do
 
   describe 'Related Objects' do
 
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/single_table_inheritance_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/single_table_inheritance_spec.rb
index 7444d06c..a7a80ada 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/single_table_inheritance_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/single_table_inheritance_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Single Table Inheritance' do
+RSpec.describe 'Single Table Inheritance' do
   let(:taggable) { TaggableModel.new(name: 'taggable model') }
 
   let(:inheriting_model) { InheritingTaggableModel.new(name: 'Inheriting Taggable Model') }
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_list_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_list_spec.rb
index a1ce10ad..1a0b5243 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_list_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_list_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::TagList do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::TagList do
   let(:tag_list) { ActsAsTaggableOn::TagList.new('awesome', 'radical') }
   let(:another_tag_list) { ActsAsTaggableOn::TagList.new('awesome','crazy', 'alien') }
 
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_spec.rb
index 6c4514ba..282b34b3 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tag_spec.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 require 'db/migrate/2_add_missing_unique_indices.rb'
 
-
-shared_examples_for 'without unique index' do
+RSpec.shared_examples_for 'without unique index' do
   prepend_before(:all) { AddMissingUniqueIndices.down }
   append_after(:all) do
     ActsAsTaggableOn::Tag.delete_all
@@ -10,7 +9,7 @@
   end
 end
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::Tag do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::Tag do
   before(:each) do
     @tag = ActsAsTaggableOn::Tag.new
     @user = TaggableModel.create(name: 'Pablo', tenant_id: 100)
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/taggable_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/taggable_spec.rb
index 04a177b7..a708df75 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/taggable_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/taggable_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Taggable To Preserve Order' do
+RSpec.describe 'Taggable To Preserve Order' do
   before(:each) do
     @taggable = OrderedTaggableModel.new(name: 'Bob Jones')
   end
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@
   end
 end
 
-describe 'Taggable' do
+RSpec.describe 'Taggable' do
   before(:each) do
     @taggable = TaggableModel.new(name: 'Bob Jones')
     @taggables = [@taggable, TaggableModel.new(name: 'John Doe')]
@@ -798,7 +798,7 @@
   end
 end
 
-describe 'Taggable model with json columns', if: postgresql_support_json? do
+RSpec.describe 'Taggable model with json columns', if: postgresql_support_json? do
   before(:each) do
     @taggable = TaggableModelWithJson.new(:name => 'Bob Jones')
     @taggables = [@taggable, TaggableModelWithJson.new(:name => 'John Doe')]
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagger_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagger_spec.rb
index 68351ad2..57e669ba 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagger_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagger_spec.rb
@@ -1,13 +1,11 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe 'Tagger' do
+RSpec.describe 'Tagger' do
   before(:each) do
     @user = User.create
     @taggable = TaggableModel.create(name: 'Bob Jones')
   end
 
-
-
   it 'should have taggings' do
     @user.tag(@taggable, with: 'ruby,scheme', on: :tags)
     expect(@user.owned_taggings.size).to eq(2)
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagging_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagging_spec.rb
index 8e3948f5..4a88ba70 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagging_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tagging_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::Tagging do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::Tagging do
   before(:each) do
     @tagging = ActsAsTaggableOn::Tagging.new
   end
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tags_helper_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tags_helper_spec.rb
index 1fd8bd71..7ef0c87f 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tags_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/tags_helper_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::TagsHelper do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::TagsHelper do
   before(:each) do
     @bob = TaggableModel.create(name: 'Bob Jones', language_list: 'ruby, php')
     @tom = TaggableModel.create(name: 'Tom Marley', language_list: 'ruby, java')
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ class Helper
         end.new
   end
 
-
   it 'should yield the proper css classes' do
     tags = {}
 
diff --git a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/utils_spec.rb b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/utils_spec.rb
index bef27ba3..6cc94b48 100644
--- a/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/utils_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/acts_as_taggable_on/utils_spec.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 require 'spec_helper'
 
-describe ActsAsTaggableOn::Utils do
+RSpec.describe ActsAsTaggableOn::Utils do
   describe '#like_operator' do
     it 'should return \'ILIKE\' when the adapter is PostgreSQL' do
       allow(ActsAsTaggableOn::Utils.connection).to receive(:adapter_name) { 'PostgreSQL' }
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index d3dd090b..b2329174 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -17,4 +17,32 @@
 
 RSpec.configure do |config|
   config.raise_errors_for_deprecations!
+
+  config.color = true
+
+  # disable monkey patching
+  # see: https://rspec.info/features/3-13/rspec-core/configuration/zero-monkey-patching-mode/
+  config.disable_monkey_patching!
+
+  config.before(:suite) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
+    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
+    DatabaseCleaner.clean
+  end
+
+  config.before(:each, :database_cleaner_delete) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
+  end
+
+  config.after(:suite) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.clean
+  end
+
+  config.before(:each) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.start
+  end
+
+  config.after(:each) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.clean
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/support/database_cleaner.rb b/spec/support/database_cleaner.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 6f3ddf36..00000000
--- a/spec/support/database_cleaner.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-RSpec.configure do |config|
-
-  config.before(:suite) do
-    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
-    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
-    DatabaseCleaner.clean
-  end
-
-  config.before(:each, :database_cleaner_delete) do
-    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
-  end
-
-  config.after(:suite) do
-    DatabaseCleaner.clean
-  end
-
-  config.before(:each) do
-    DatabaseCleaner.start
-  end
-
-  config.after(:each) do
-    DatabaseCleaner.clean
-  end
-
-end