Conditional format a list if some of its text is contained in another list

So what I'm looking to do here is compare two lists of items. One is a big list that has many different items and another list of what we will call key items. Some of the items in the first list might be different versions (ex. apple 1, apple 2, etc or orange I, orange V, orange XIV)

The big list starts in A2 and goes to A50. The smaller list of key items is in C2:C15.

What I am looking to do is have any particular item in the C2:C15 list light up a color if some variation of its name appears in the List contained in column A.

So for example, column A might list the following:
Apple 1
Apple 2
Apple 3
Apple 4
Orange I
Orange II
Orange III
Orange IV

In C2:C15, they wouldn't have these variations, it would just be a generic Apple or Orange with no numbers or numerals attached.

So in this case, I would want those two items in column C to light up because at least some variation of them appeared in column A.

Is there a way to do this?

yes, with C2 the active cell, you can apply a conditional format formula/rule to C2:C15 along the lines of:

=($C2<>"")*COUNT(SEARCH(" "&$C2&" "," "&$A$2:$A$50&" "))
and set format accordingly

Thank you. This will do just fine!