Editing Forth (programming language) (section)

==== Immediate words ====
The word <code>IMMEDIATE</code> marks the most recent colon definition as an ''immediate word'', effectively replacing its compilation semantics with its interpretation semantics.<ref name="odMGJ">{{harvnb|Brodie|1987|p=273}}</ref> Immediate words are normally executed during compilation, not compiled, but this can be overridden by the programmer in either state. <code>;</code> is an example of an immediate word. In {{Not a typo|ANS}} <!-- not a misspelling --> Forth, the word <code>POSTPONE</code> takes a name as a parameter and appends the compilation semantics of the named word to the current definition even if the word was marked immediate. Forth-83 defined separate words <code>COMPILE</code> and <code>[COMPILE]</code> to force the compilation of non-immediate and immediate words, respectively.

Instead of reserving space for an Immediate flag in every definition, some implementations of Forth use an Immediates Dictionary which is checked first when in compile mode.