By introducing a transformation containing two trial functions and selecting the appropriate trial functions, we successfully find the exact solutions for several higher-order nonlinear wave equations named the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation and the Kawahara equation as well as the KdV-Burgers-Kuramoto equation hard to be solved in usual ways. The technique used herein can also be applied to construct the exact solutions of other nonlinear wave equations.

nonlinear wave equation, trial function, exact solution.